Like Ninja Fighters
by Jelp
Summary: There's more to Sasuke and Naruto's relationship than what meets the eye - even if neither of them wants to admit it.
1. Chapter 1: Preparing For Battle

I don't own Naruto and make no money by writing this fic. Some of this had been edited by the lovely Master of the Rebels. She edited this back on February 3. Yeah, I've had this chapter for a while. Needless to say it's been tweaked a TON since then. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Dedicated to Fallenkarma.

**Like Ninja Fighters**

**Chapter One: Preparing for Battle**

It was fifteen minutes until the end of the school day. Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto both sat – not in a class – but in the principal's office. Sasuke's normally immaculately styled black hair was tussled, and there was a dark bruise forming on the left side of his cheek, contrasting dramatically against his pale skin. Naruto sat scowling beside him, his lip split and bleeding slightly. Neither looked at the other. Instead they faced the principal who sat staring at them from behind his desk. A little, golden sign reading "Principal Sarutobi" perched before him.

Principal Sarutobi frowned at the two young men sitting next to each other. He remembered a similar scene from their first day of their freshman year, almost four years prior.

On their first day of high school they had gotten into a fight that had drawn an enormous crowd due to their intense and impressive fighting skills. Both used karate moves that left not only students but also teachers afraid to get in the middle of the apparently skilled fighters. Watching them fight was like watching a ninja movie; their karate abilities were _that_ good.

Of course, beating the crap out of each other wasn't the best way to start their first day of high school no matter how entertaining the rest of the school found their fight to be. It was as though the school populace had never seen such a fight, and they feared they would never see anything as spectacular again.

Not that it was the last time that the two boys had fought in school. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Seeing the two in front of his desk had unfortunately been a repeated occurrence in the past four years.

They'd had many fights their freshman year, a handful of fights their sophomore year, maybe just two or three their junior year, but (thankfully) this had been their first fight their senior year. It was almost the end of the school term, and Sarutobi had hoped that the two had matured enough not to have any more fights.

Their current predicament stated otherwise.

It had been hard to separate the two as the crowd that gathered around to witness the fight seemed reluctant to have their show end.

"Sasuke, Naruto," Sarutobi's voice rumbled, "I had hoped that the two of you had managed to work out your differences. You have four weeks until your graduation, and this is unacceptable behavior. I know that the two of you have both been accepted to the same university," Sarutobi said, tapping his fingers on two manila folders, files with the names Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke clearly splashed on the tab and down the side, emphasizing the reason as to how he knew. "At your university, behavior like this will _not_ be tolerated. You will both be kicked out without a refund of your money."

Sarutobi gazed directly into cool, coal eyes. Sasuke looked at him as though seeing through him, Sarutobi's words seemingly having no affect on the stoic boy. Sasuke was probably unaffected because it was something he'd already known. At least, Sarutobi hoped Sasuke understood the severe consequences his actions would have at his university. Principal Sarutobi shifted his gaze to look into cobalt blue eyes. Naruto stared intently back, his teeth and tongue playing with his split lower lip, at least looking slightly apologetic at what he'd done.

"Since it's toward the end of the year, I'm going to be a bit more lenient on the both of you. I'm only going to give you two days out of school suspension-"

"Two days?!" Naruto burst out. Sasuke shot him a glare.

"It's normally three. Be grateful," Sasuke hissed. Naruto clamped his mouth shut and murmured an apology for his outburst.

"I will contact your guardian. I'm sure he will be disappointed in the both of you," Sarutobi said firmly. "Get your things and head home. I will see the two of you back here on Monday – _behaving_."

By the time Sasuke and Naruto had gone to their lockers, the bell had rung for the end of the day. Other students rushed up to them, asking them for details about their fight. Naruto said that he had won, boasting loudly how he had gotten in a good right hook on Sasuke. The shiner on Sasuke's cheek attested to Naruto's boast. Sasuke ignored him and anyone else who asked for details. It wasn't as though the many onlookers couldn't have told the ones that hadn't been there what had happened.

They got on the same bus, Sasuke heading straight for the back, Naruto bouncing right into the front seat where he happily talked away to the elderly bus driver. Even in the back of the bus Sasuke could hear Naruto telling her how it had been Sasuke's fault that the two of them had gotten into a fight, and therefore Sasuke's fault that they had gotten into trouble.

Twenty minutes later, the bus stopped and Naruto dashed off of it, walking quickly toward the direction of his home. Sasuke took his time, sauntering slowly off the bus and down the same street. Kids gazed out the windows after him, knowing, like Sasuke did, that Naruto was probably waiting just out of sight to ambush him as soon as the bus driver and any other witnesses had driven away.

Rumors around their school said that the after school fights between the two boys were more violent and more spectacular to witness than the already entertaining brawls they had in school. Students would pay good money to see the two rivals fight outside of school grounds with no teachers to stop them from fighting all out.

But the bus had driven out of sight by the time Naruto stepped out from his hiding spot. There were no other witnesses save Sasuke to see the fury on Naruto's face as he glowered at Sasuke.

"Two days. _Two days_ of suspension!"

An onlooker would have seen the angry glare and assumed that Naruto was angry that Sasuke had gotten him suspended.

Sasuke knew better. He knew the true reason behind Naruto's anger. After all, it mirrored his own.

"I guess Principal Sarutobi thought he was trying to be nice. It's strange that he broke the standard procedure for fighting, giving us two days instead of three days out of school suspension. At least we didn't get in-school suspension instead."

"But we were _counting_ on three days suspension! We planned so hard for the three days. We'd be off tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then Monday as well! Now the timing's all messed up. We'll never be able to beat the newest Ninja Chronicles game before we have to go back to school! And we'll probably be at the height of the story plot then. What if we don't finish it before the last episode airs Monday night?" Naruto grumbled, moving to walk next to Sasuke. His tongue darted out to play with his still slightly swollen lip.

People from school would have been shocked to see the two boys walking like best friends next to each other. Faculty and students alike would have wondered why they weren't trying to kill one another.

Their mutual guardian, Kakashi, would have been able to tell them the true story behind their strange relationship, and the real reason behind all the fights. They looked like best friends because they _were_ best friends – and had been for years.

Sasuke and Naruto walked together in silence, both thinking of ways to get out of going to school on Monday. Sasuke took out his key as they walked up the driveway to their adopted father's home and opened the door.

"Maybe...maybe if we start on the game today, right now before Kakashi gets home..." Naruto suggested. Sasuke frowned, and they both shared a look.

It wasn't a good idea to risk it considering past results with this type of scheming. Kakashi was on to them. He had figured out the true reason they got into fights at school, even if it had taken him during the beginning of their junior year to finally put two and two together. It wasn't too hard for him to realize they only got into fights after the latest videogame had come out. In short, they got into fights to be suspended on purpose for three days off when they could play videogames together.

Upon finding this out, Kakashi made sure to punish his adopted sons to prevent such behavior: namely taking away their videogame system and games.

That was why they had gotten into so few fights their junior year. Kakashi discovering their secret had made it difficult to play videogames when he piled on chores to get them to stop skipping school – even if they had found a "legitimate" reason for skipping. They didn't care that it was put on their permanent record. Apparently, Kakashi did.

But Sasuke and Naruto had devised past schemes to get as much playing time in as possible for certain games, even if Kakashi might suspect them and try and stop them. Kakashi worked every day of the week; so even if they were grounded, they could still play when he wasn't home.

They had already hidden away their game console, controllers, the game that they had bought the day before, and whatnot, going so far as having a backup generator hidden safely away incase Kakashi had the power shut off like the one time in their junior year to prevent them from doing what they were attempting to do now.

Sometimes Naruto and Sasuke wondered if Kakashi did it just because he liked messing with their heads more so than actually being mad that they wanted to play videogames.

It was always hard to tell with Kakashi. Either way they had planned around his potential scheming just in case so they could finish the game before Monday night.

From the gaming reports online, they had figured out how much time they would need to beat the game in two player hard mode before the last episode of Ninja Chronicles aired on Monday. They would play all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and finish the game early Monday, giving them time to do their make-up work from school. They had even factored in the time it would take to do all the normal chores Kakashi would give them for being suspended.

But, if they didn't have Monday, they would need to start tonight to try and make the Sunday deadline before going back to school the follow day. However, if Kakashi caught them playing the game now after talking to the principal, then he'd take it from them, unless they could make a bargain with him. Unlikely.

But still...to beat the game before they went back to school, to finish the game before anyone else did to prevent spoilers for the ending…! But most importantly, finish it before the final episode of Ninja Chronicles aired on Monday night – was it worth the risk to try and beat it before all of that?

Sasuke and Naruto shared a look, knowing the answer to that question.

"If we get caught, I'm blaming you," Sasuke finally said. Naruto grinned.

"Come on, teammate. We have some enemy ninjas to take down!

* * *

**Next Chapter: The First Battle**

Finally. And by that, I mean, this fic has already been written out and has the ending written. There are a few scenes left to be tweaked, and one or two that I want to add, but for all intensive purposes, I've already finished this entire thing. Updates should be at least once a week.

I started working on this back January 12th of this year. I still have three other fics I'm working on that have yet to be posted (multi-chapter) and then six that I've posted a few chapters for.

Oh, and can I just add I do NOT condone skipping school and/or getting expelled to play videogames. This is just a story.

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! The next ones will be longer. ~ Jelp


	2. Chapter 2: The First Battle

**Like Ninja Fighters**

**Chapter 2: The First Battle**

_"They're both eighteen years old now. They need to know that they can't act like kids for the rest of their lives. This fighting should have stopped years ago,"_ Sarutobi's voice came over the phone.

"Sometimes I think they're more childish now than when they were younger," Kakashi said, watching his two adopted sons as they played their videogame. Naruto stared intently at the screen, looking at the blonde-haired character with the name "Jun" while Sasuke focused on the black-haired character named "Nori."

_"Have the two of them gotten into a fight since they returned from school? I thought about having you pick them up, but as it was the end of the day, I hoped they would be able to manage a bus ride home. Do they look like they have had a recent fight?"_ Sarutobi asked, concerned, clearly double guessing his judgment to send them home on the bus.

Glancing over at the TV, Kakashi saw Naruto and Sasuke's characters double team up against the enemy fighters on the screen, kicking, punching, and fighting in perfect unison, their video gaming teamwork flawless.

"No fights," Kakashi said, slightly amused as he watched their fighting on TV. No _real_ fights, he amended in his mind. Victory music blared for winning their latest battle on Ninja Chronicles 7.

_"Their teachers were notified that they will be out of school for two days. You will be able to pick up their schoolwork after school tomorrow."_

"Just two days? I thought the standard suspension time for fighting was three days," Kakashi clarified, as a few things clicked into place with this new knowledge.

_"It's their senior year, and they can't afford to miss out on any last minute graduation requirements."_

"I'll bet they weren't happy," Kakashi said, trying not to sound too amused. He knew why they wouldn't be happy for getting two days instead of three. Sarutobi would assume that they were upset for getting suspended in the first place. Kakashi knew better.

_"Naruto seemed more upset than Sasuke. I thought Sasuke, considering his academic record, would be more upset about missing school. Instead he just told Naruto to be grateful it wasn't more days."_

"Thank you for letting me know. I'm fairly certain it wasn't about anything major. For the most part, they've settled their, uh, differences. Either way, I'll make sure to have a talk with the boys."

_"Good luck."_

"Thanks." As Kakashi hung up the phone, Sasuke and Naruto turned to look at him. He frowned at the dark bruise on Sasuke's cheek and Naruto's split lip, but overall, the boys seemed in extremely good spirits. As he looked at them, he realized calling them boys wasn't exactly fitting anymore. They were both legally adults now, soon to start at their university. They could act mature and be responsible when they wanted to be. Yet sitting there, watching them play videogames together reminded him of the first time that they had met, almost ten years ago...

* * *

_Ten years previously..._

"So I'm going to get a brother?" eight-year-old Naruto asked excitedly. Kakashi just smiled.

"If you find someone you get along with," Kakashi said, trying not to sound as though he were brother shopping for Naruto. Essentially though, that's what they were about to do. Kakashi had been a foster father to Naruto for two years now, and Kakashi really didn't have any interest in having kids of his own. Babies frazzled him.

Naruto had been placed in Kakashi's care after his parents had died when Naruto was only six. Naruto had been paralyzed from the waist down when Naruto had first come to his home due to the result of the same car accident that had killed his parents. The doctors had said that Naruto would never recover feeling in his legs let alone walk again. But Naruto, ever the optimist and a determined and hard worker, didn't let that get him down. It had taken almost a year, but he'd made a full recovery – stunning the doctors at his remarkable return to a full bill of health.

The emotional toil of watching the small child tackle such a daunting task still pulled at Kakashi's heart when he thought about it. He'd come to care for Naruto like his own son.

Recently Kakashi had realized that Naruto wasn't getting along too well with the kids at school his own age, and Kakashi decided that perhaps he ought to – temporarily – take on another foster child. He currently worked from home, and he had the money. He knew that the system desperately needed more foster families to take kids in, and having gone through the system himself when he was younger, he knew that it was vital to have a stable foster home to look after children.

Besides, after juggling a gravely injured Naruto and his work proved he would be able to handle two children. Or so logic told him. Realistically, Kakashi couldn't stand to see Naruto so down about not having friends when even the inability to walk hadn't brought his spirits down.

They were currently at a center where foster children stayed briefly while the government found suitable families to take them in. On average, they were kept there less than a week. The building was a lot nicer than Kakashi remembered from his own days there. It was strangely nostalgic for him, but even so, Kakashi didn't mind taking Naruto to see if there were any kids he'd get along with and take on another child in his home.

When Kakashi had first approached the director about what he was doing, she'd actually encouraged it, saying it would be better for both Naruto and any other foster child for them to meet beforehand. If they got along well, it was less likely they would get into trouble and be sent back. Kakashi remembered all too well the issues he'd had with some of the biological children of the foster parents' whose homes he'd stayed in. Jealousy sometimes occurred between the biological children of foster parents and the foster children; Kakashi didn't want Naruto or any foster child to butt heads. It wouldn't be a healthy environment for either of them.

Thankfully the director understood what Kakashi was trying to prevent, and she was just grateful that he'd consider taking on a second foster child. His record was good, and even though he was a single parent, he worked from home.

Initially after Naruto's parents' deaths, Naruto was just going to stay with Kakashi until further family could be found. However, none had been reached, so Kakashi had begun the process to legally adopt Naruto. There was no way Kakashi wanted to send him back to the system, not when he'd become so close to him. He'd already been close to him before the car accident as Kakashi had known Naruto's parents. In fact, sending Naruto away would be like ripping away Kakashi's only remaining family. He had a feeling he would take the separation worse than Naruto.

So that was why they were at the foster center, basically brother shopping for Naruto. (Kakashi had refused to take on a young girl. He wouldn't even know where to start with one of those.)

Kakashi read a book as Naruto took time to hang out with the other kids. Kakashi only glanced up occasionally to see what Naruto was up to.

Naruto played in the playground with the kids outside, did crafts with the kids indoors, played a board game, watched an episode of an anime show, and had a blast hanging out with all the other foster children. Idly Kakashi wondered why the school had sent home a concerned letter saying that Naruto was having trouble with the students in his classes; Naruto was _thriving_ with the children here.

'At least,' Kakashi mused, 'we can come here for him to find kids to play with.' Kakashi was thankful that Naruto wasn't hopeless at making friends. Maybe he just didn't like any of his fellow students at his school. He seemed to like everyone here.

Hopefully Naruto wouldn't want him to bring home all these kids as siblings.

"Has Naruto shown interest in anyone?" the director asked hopefully, coming up to speak with Kakashi. He flagged the page in his book and turned to look at her.

"Everyone," Kakashi murmured, smiling warmly, his eyes crinkling upward.

"I see," she said. There was something in her voice that made Kakashi wonder if she wanted to say more. She flicked one of her blonde-pigtails behind her head, showing off her director's nametag: Tsunade. He waited for her to speak. When she didn't, he finally decided to prompt more conversation.

"Did you have someone specific in mind?"

"There's a young boy who has been here for two months. We are reluctant to place him in a foster home. He doesn't talk to anyone. He just sits in front of the TV and plays videogames all day long. We tried taking him away from the games, but then he just sat and stared blankly and refused to eat. His name's Sasuke."

"Recently orphaned?"

The director nodded solemnly. She gestured over to a corner where a little boy sat in front of a small TV. It looked like it had been set-up just for him. His eyes were focused on the game, but they looked lifeless, dreary. If his fingers hadn't been moving on the controller, it would have been hard to tell he was playing the videogame at all.

"His older brother murdered the rest of his family," Tsunade murmured, shocking Kakashi at the horror of it. "The cops showed up and then shot his brother before he got the chance to kill Sasuke. It seems the videogames take his mind off of the murder of his family. His entire situation was made worse than just witnessing his family's slaughter because, according to police witnesses, when the cops barged in, the older brother was hovering over him with a butcher knife."

Kakashi looked at the child, wondering how anyone could recoup from such a life-changing tragedy.

"The police shot the older brother on sight. The brother's body fell on top of Sasuke, and the knife left a scar on his shoulder. When he feels cornered, his hand reaches back and rubs at it. It seems that sometimes he has flashbacks of the incident. Since the police had to shoot his brother to prevent him from killing Sasuke, no one knows why the brother did what he did. There's been no closure for Sasuke, and at times, it seems he's stuck reliving it over and over again until his young mind figures out what happened. A therapist was brought in to try and speak with him, but he refused to speak to anyone."

Kakashi didn't know what to say. The boy's past was appalling, but he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do about it. Clearly the boy needed psychiatric help.

"Have they thought about moving him to an institution?"

"A team of specialists has already come in to observe him. They believe isolation will make his condition worse, not better. If his older brother had lived, it's likely he would have been more interactive, or at least more responsive. He would have been angry and hateful of course, but at least not completely void of emotion. Even those negative emotions would be better than this nothingness. He's got no one left. All those he held dear were killed. He never had any friends. Apparently he always looked up to his older brother and worked hard to make his brother proud of him. Even his older brother is dead. There's no one left for him to admire – or hate. We keep a close watch on him. Although he's a bright child, we fear he may attempt to harm himself."

"So in other words he's refusing to make any new connections, most likely in fear of losing them?"

"Probably. But your foster son, Naruto, according to his caseworker's report was having trouble making friends with kids his own age. Yet look at him right now! He's getting along great with everyone here. He was young when his parents died, but he too understands what these children are going through. I think he would connect even better with Sasuke, considering what Naruto went through with being paralyzed. He never gave up hope, the caseworker said, and she believes that was why he recovered so well. Apparently it also helped Naruto cope with his parents' death."

"He says he doesn't remember it well, but they were crushed to death right in front of him. Sometimes I think he just refuses to remember it," Kakashi said, his voice hitching. He had trouble dealing with the thought of how horrible the car crash had been. Naruto had to be pried from the back seat while the front of the car crushed into his small legs. The thought of the pain he suffered was horrendous, but even worse for Kakashi was imagining Naruto's parents: good, loving people, whom Kakashi had known, crushed to death so brutally. They hadn't deserved that. And neither had Naruto.

"Most people would get themselves into such a funk that mentally they wouldn't be able to get better, but not Naruto. He thrives in happiness, and he seems to like reaching out to those who need a boost up. Even the ones who are just temporarily separated from their parents are connecting with Naruto. He seems to just shine. Maybe encourage Naruto to go and speak with Sasuke."

"I don't know that Naruto would talk to him. For one, he doesn't play videogames. He only plays computer...games..." but Kakashi trailed off as Naruto walked up to Sasuke of his own accord. Naruto stood above Sasuke, watching the character on the screen, his eyes widening when Sasuke made the character labeled "Nori" do an impressive back flip.

"What are you playing?" Naruto asked.

Even if he had heard him, Sasuke didn't respond. Naruto asked again louder, "What are you playing?"

"Hey. He doesn't talk," one of the boy's Naruto had played with earlier explained. He had come up to get Naruto's attention, and he seemed almost apprehensive that Naruto was attempting to talk with Sasuke.

"Why not?" Naruto asked.

"I think he's stupid," the other boy said, not bothering to whisper it in front of Sasuke.

"Really?" Naruto asked with a frown on his face as he looked at Sasuke. "He doesn't look stupid. Did you see that move he just did?" Naruto asked the other boy. The fellow orphan shook his head. Naruto bent down and poked Sasuke in the side. _Hard._ "You're not stupid are you?"

Kakashi shook his head and took a step forward, intent on telling Naruto to leave Sasuke alone, but the director held up her hand.

"Let him." Against his better judgment, Kakashi didn't interfere.

When Sasuke didn't respond, Naruto poked him again, harder.

"What's your name?" No response. Naruto waved his hand in front of Sasuke's face. "I'll pull the plug on your videogame unless you talk!" Naruto warned angrily. The other orphan looked at the two of them nervously before walking away.

The director put a hand on Kakashi's shoulder to prevent him from stopping Naruto from annoying Sasuke.

"Please, just wait," she murmured to Kakashi. Kakashi frowned at her. He usually didn't tolerate such behavior from Naruto, but he had to admit he was slightly curious to see if Sasuke would respond to Naruto's instigations or not.

Naruto walked over to the game console, frowning at it. It was clear he didn't know how to turn it off. Kakashi had never gotten Naruto any videogame systems; Naruto, like Kakashi, played computer games.

After all, Kakashi designed and critiqued computer games for a living.

Even though Naruto couldn't find the off switch, he seemed determined to get Sasuke's attention. Undeterred at not finding the game console switch, he put his finger over the power button of the TV. Kakashi realized it was something that he did frequently to Naruto's computer monitor when Naruto was too engrossed in a computer game and had to head to bed.

"Stop ignoring me!" Naruto yelled, clearly upset with Sasuke's lack of attention. "You're not the only one whose parents died or left them! Stop acting like you're the only one who's sad about something!" Sasuke's shoulders tensed, and Kakashi could see a look of slight success cross Naruto's face; he'd gotten Sasuke to react to him finally. "It's stupid of you to ignore everyone. It won't make them come back. And it won't make them happy to know they have a bad son who is mean and doesn't do what he's supposed to!"

Sasuke's head snapped up, and he glared at Naruto.

"I'm not the bad son," Sasuke murmured. His voice was low, quiet. Kakashi had expected him to yell back in anger. Instead, his voice was cold and almost uncaring.

It was sad that a child that young could sound so lifeless.

"Then stop acting like it!"

Sasuke threw the controller on the floor and stood up, coming face to face with Naruto. Sasuke looked livid, a drastic change from the emotionless mask he had worn. His hand had reached back to play with the back of his neck. The director looked like she had stopped breathing; she was that intent on observing the exchange between the two boys. Kakashi frowned, stepping forward; he didn't want to see Naruto get into a fight. Not to mention, the director had said Sasuke started to have traumatic flashbacks when his hand played with the scar he'd gotten.

Naruto surprised everyone when he smiled happily at Sasuke.

"See? Much better! I'm Naruto," Naruto said, grinning widely now that he had Sasuke's attention. He offered his hand to Sasuke. Sasuke looked like he wasn't sure if he should shake his hand or hit him. He did neither.

"Sasuke," Sasuke mumbled reluctantly, removing his hand from the back of his neck, sticking both his balled up fists into his pockets. Naruto, un-phased by Sasuke's lack of desire to shake his hand, stuck his own hand into Sasuke's pocket, pulled out Sasuke's hand, and shook it. Sasuke let him.

Sasuke looked at Naruto as though he'd never seen a person before.

"Now, how did you do that cool flip thing with your character?" Naruto asked curiously. Sasuke gave Naruto a strange look before sitting back down, Naruto sitting close beside him.

Kakashi watched in bemusement as Sasuke proceeded to grudgingly show Naruto how to play the videogame.

"I had a good feeling about Naruto," the director said, smiling gently.

"I suppose so," Kakashi said, slightly surprised, but pleased with Naruto.

"The therapists were interested in seeing how Sasuke was doing, how he was feeling. They strongly suggested having a child his own age interact with him, someone who could understand him a little. Naruto could sympathize with how Sasuke felt without asking about it. He also wanted to interact with Sasuke with no other motive than to get to know him, or rather, to get to know how Sasuke could play videogames it seems. The other kids seemed fearful of Sasuke. I thought if only _one _of them would talk to him it would make all the difference. The boys seemed jealous of him, and the girls seemed to think he was too cool that they were afraid they would slip up if they talked to him."

"Naruto reads people fairly well," Kakashi conceded. He smiled as he watched on while Sasuke and Naruto played the videogame.

* * *

On the way home from the center (no other child in tow) Naruto asked about Sasuke.

"Do you think we could go back again tomorrow so I can play with Sasuke? He said that I need practice if I'm going to be able to do the move that he did. Plus, he won't let me use Nori. I have to use Jun, and Jun's got a different type of flip than Nori. I gotta perfect it so I can beat him!"

Kakashi chuckled. "Sure."

One week later, Sasuke came home with them, a new videogame system in tow.

* * *

Remembering the fact that a videogame (Ninja Chronicles 1 to be exact) was how the two of them had first met made Kakashi smile in nostalgia. Because it had been the videogames that seemed to open Sasuke up, Kakashi had always been loathe taking it away from them. Not to mention they seemed to take it seriously. He'd been extremely surprised when they had gotten actively involved in karate because they wanted to become like the two main ninjas in their favorite videogame, Ninja Chronicles.

They'd become almost fanatically obsessed with learning new moves, attempting to mirror the characters from the show.

Of course, even though the game had been an icebreaker between them, videogames had caused a lot of problems with the boys too: skipping school for instance.

It had also led to other habits that took away from their schoolwork. The current game was based off of a TV show that the boys had become addicted to, spending their time on the computer reading up on character information, re-watching the episodes, and even reading fan-fiction on it.

And even though Sasuke and Naruto didn't talk about it, Kakashi had figured out that it had been the fan-fiction that had recently gotten them in trouble. He'd done his less than fun parenting duty by snooping on both Sasuke and Naruto's computers after finding them in such a bizarre situation. He had found out that they were mirroring what they were reading between their two favorite characters in fanfiction (favorites never lie), an incident that had landed them in trouble.

Though _trouble_ might not be the right word for what it had caused between the two. It was more like tension. After all, he wasn't sure if he should ground them for exploring their, uh, curiosity. It left him less than comfortable, but he feared telling them not to do it would just make the situation worse. After all, knowing them, taking away the videogames had gotten them to just go behind his back. Telling them not to…not to…Kakashi wasn't sure he could even put into words what was going on between them.

Movement brought Kakashi back from his thoughts as he turned to look at Naruto who kept shooting glances his way.

"Are you really going to let us play?" Naruto asked nervously, looking at Kakashi and then back at their game.

"You mean because the two of you ought to be grounded for purposefully getting into a fight to skip school in order to play a silly little videogame and don't deserve to play it?"

Naruto winced.

"I told you the agreement. You do this analysis," Kakashi said, holding up the stack of papers in front of him, "and finish all your schoolwork as soon as I get it to you tomorrow, then yes."

Sasuke and Naruto eyed the analysis.

"But how did you get stuck on the analysis on this game? I thought that you only did action game analysis for computer games, not videogames," Sasuke wondered.

"Usually. But the boss asked for a cross analysis between the videogame and its computer counterpart that's in the works. You get to do half my report for me. You know I prefer computer games to videogames."

"Deal," Sasuke and Naruto said, both turning back to the game.

Kakashi sighed in relief. Quite frankly, he'd rather have them playing videogames when they were suspended than left alone to do what he had caught them doing together last month in Sasuke's bedroom. Shaking his head, trying to quell the disturbing image of his two adopted sons doing – well, he'd rather not think about _that_.

He'd rather them be focused on the videogame during their two day suspension than _other_ things.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Evasive Battle Maneuvers**

Just an fyi, I used the names Jun and Nori for the Ninja Chronicle characters because the Japanese voice actress who does Naruto is Junko, and the Japanese voice actor who does Sasuke is Noriaki.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! ~ Jelp


	3. Chapter 3: Evasive Battle Maneuvers

Happy Birthday Naruto!

**Like Ninja Fighters**

**Chapter 3: Evasive Battle Maneuvers**

"If you hit him with fire, and I hit him with wind, we might get the double attack hit this time," Naruto spoke. Sasuke didn't answer, his fingers already clicking away, pushing the buttons in the pattern that would allow him to use his blazing fire hawk attack. Naruto's fingers _click-clacked_ on the buttons to get the right combo to use his dynamic whirlwind fury rush. The result of their attack flashed on the screen.

_TRIPLE DAMAGE!_ Super effective combo! Great teamwork!

The bar indicating their opponent's life drained all the way down, and the image of their opponent dropped to the ground before it disappeared.

They'd just beaten the first of the four main bosses: the first of the four Samurai Guardians.

"Yes!" Naruto whooped, pumping his fist into the air. Sasuke just gave a satisfied smirk as the option to "save" or "save and quit" appeared on the screen.

"Lunch," Sasuke said as he hit the "save and quit" option. Frowning, Naruto turned to look at Sasuke.

"I wanted to keep playing," Naruto protested.

"You _always _want to keep playing. Even if there were an earthquake, you would want to keep going. It's a good place to save so we can eat lunch. Besides, I need a bathroom break," Sasuke grunted as he put the controller down and headed to the bathroom. Naruto blinked and considered the idea. Now that Sasuke had mentioned it, he realized he also had to use the bathroom. Putting his controller down too, Naruto decided he'd get lunch started first.

While he could wait at the bathroom door and bug Sasuke to hurry up as he used to do, Naruto decided that getting lunch started would mean they could get back to playing as soon as possible. Plus (Naruto blushed in thought), Naruto wanted to give Sasuke as much space away from anything personal like that. After what happened about a month ago...

Naruto distracted himself from his thoughts as he started boiling water for ramen. When Sasuke came into the kitchen, Naruto headed to the bathroom. When Naruto came back into the kitchen, Sasuke had sliced up some vegetables and began to sauté them. It was an unspoken thing between them: Naruto made ramen, Sasuke made vegetables to supplement it.

"Game time says we have a total of 13 hours and 23 minutes playing time. We got through the first of the four Samurai Guardians. The internet game spoilers said estimated time to get to him was 15 hours and 20 minutes. We're almost two hours ahead," Naruto said as he poured the ramen noodles into the boiling water.

"We should also have an advantage over the third Samurai Guardian because of that Ninja Chronicles episode that gave us the secret code last week," Sasuke mused.

"Yeah, but that's a shortcut."

"Entering the code will let us have the battle with the third Samurai Guardian twenty rooms earlier when we get to the Summer Palace. It will save at least an hour of playing time. The only thing we'll miss out on is experience points fighting the Palace's Ninja Ops. Besides, if we enter that code, we fight him in the Ninja Warrior Room of the Summer Palace versus the Samurai Warrior Room of the Summer Palace. In the Ninja Warrior Room, you know that Nori and Jun have greater power because they're ninja. The Third Samurai Guardian would have more power if we waited because we'd be fighting him in the Samurai Warrior Room, which gives him the advantage. You know he's the most powerful of the four Samurai Guardians, so you know he's going to be a pain in the ass to defeat in the game too. Don't you remember how long it took us to defeat him in Ninja Chronicles Game Six? And that wasn't even to kill him. This will get rid of him like in the show."

"Yeah, yeah, but I really wanted to fight him in the Samurai Warrior Room! That's what really happens in the show when they finally manage to kill him for real. The Ninja Warrior Room isn't where they fight him. It's like cutting out five episodes of the series if we fight him sooner."

"But it saves time since the Ninja Warrior Room comes first. Don't you want to finish the game before the last episode of Ninja Chronicles airs?" Sasuke wondered.

"You know I do! But still, I like the part in the Ninja Warrior Room when it's _just_ Nori and Jun. It takes away something from what happened if that stupid Third Samurai Guardian is there. That's where they _finally_ find out for sure that Jun is the true Emperor's son, and that Jun was stolen at birth. That was such a big part of the series! They've been trying to assassinate the fake Emperor since the very beginning and reinstate the true Emperor on the throne. I mean, it was so _obvious_ that Jun was the real Emperor's son, even from the very beginning of the series, but of course they didn't confirm it until almost ten years later in the anime!"

"Of course they didn't confirm it until later. That would have spoiled the suspense."

Still, it was something that both Sasuke and Naruto were looking forward to in the final two-hour special on Monday; how would Jun tell the true and rightful Emperor (who Jun had just happened to save in the previous episode from the evil/fake Emperor's hands) that he was really his son? How was Jun going to reveal his true heritage? How would the true Emperor take to this news?

They'd both been so eager to find out what would happen with Jun and the Emperor for years. Over three years ago, even before they'd known the "truth" of Jun's parentage, they had started going online to look for spoilers. Of course, with the hype and popularity of the Ninja Chronicles series, it was hard to believe what sites were actually giving out real information.

Upon looking for spoilers, it was then that Naruto had stumbled upon fan-fiction. Ninja Chronicles was the most popular anime that people wrote about, so he became fascinated with reading people's ideas of how Jun would reveal his secret. Sasuke started reading fan-fiction as well, but initially he had done so with less enthusiasm and intensity as Naruto.

It was Sasuke, however, who had accidentally stumbled upon the Nori/Jun slash community. Not being as big a fan-fiction reader as Naruto at the time as he preferred the real story to amateur writers, he stumbled upon a fic where Nori/Jun was listed in the summary. He assumed that it meant that they were the main focus of the story since they're the main characters of the series.

It wasn't until 20 chapters in the massive fic that he realized Nori/Jun with an "M" rating wasn't due to the violence in the story but a more intimate reason.

Nonetheless, the story was well written, and he continued to read it to the end, even after the very graphic male/male sex scenes that the fanfic writer had written between Sasuke's two favorite characters. In fact, the story was so well written that he decided to read other fics by the same author and found all of them to be good despite the Nori/Jun pairing.

He read all of the fics that she recommended in her author profile, and then began to read all of the fics in those authors' profiles. Most all of those stories centered on the Nori/Jun slash pairing (or Jun/Nori at times), but it didn't bother him as much as he felt it would have bothered Naruto.

After almost a year went by of reading fanfiction, Sasuke realized he was beginning to _look_ for that pairing. It seemed to fit cannon, and the Nori/Jun fandom seemed to have the best (as well as the worst) authors.

Sasuke never told Naruto about the type of fics he read though. It would be too embarrassing and awkward. Even more embarrassing was when he'd begun to read through the stories, and in his imagination replaced Nori with himself and Jun with Naruto's image when he read the fics.

The damn fanfiction had begun to make Sasuke look at Naruto in a new light.

He began to fantasize about Naruto in a very less than brotherly fashion. How do you explain to your best friend you have begun to fantasize about having sex with him? How was he supposed to explain he enjoyed watching Naruto's body whenever he took his shirt off?

After looking back on their past, Sasuke began to realize that he had always been jealous of the friends that Naruto had made. He had always chalked up his jealousy at feeling replaced.

The feeling had actually made them have a slight falling out their freshman year when all of their fights hadn't actually been staged. Some of those had been out of actual anger. One in particular had been due to a pretty bad misunderstanding.

But now, looking back on it, he'd been jealous because he had liked Naruto. Not to the degree he did now, but it had been intense even then. Sasuke had felt a bond for Naruto so strong that he hadn't wanted anything – and especially any_one_ – to come between them. He had lost his entire family at the age of eight, and he wasn't about to lose Naruto any time soon. Not to anyone.

Of course, living as brothers, he had always assumed that it was a brotherly connection. Sasuke had a feeling his own horrible past with his brother had made a normal brotherly relationship with Naruto impossible. He hadn't ever thought of Naruto like a true younger brother. He was protective of him but almost possessive about Naruto's attention. Sasuke didn't want anyone else to be a part of the relationship they had – unless it was Kakashi, but that was different.

Sasuke worried that at some point and time, Naruto would realize he wouldn't want to be with just Sasuke and Kakashi anymore.

Sasuke realized that he wanted, in a strange rush of embarrassment, to spend the rest of his life with Naruto. He had always thought they'd be together forever.

The sexual part of it hadn't come until he'd started reading the damn fanfiction.

But he hadn't wanted to like Naruto like that. He didn't want to see him as something different. And he especially didn't want Naruto to freak out on him if he realized his feelings for him were in any way sexual.

It was weird really. He'd seen Naruto naked a lot growing up. They'd taken showers together and hadn't thought anything of it. Sasuke had seen Naruto's body develop over the years, but in the past year…

The past year, Naruto had finally grown into his body.

When his desires became more intense during the beginning of their senior year, he began to draw away from Naruto to prevent himself from acting on those feelings. If he drew away first, Sasuke reasoned it wouldn't hurt as much when Naruto did it himself.

Of course, hiding things from Naruto was never easy.

Naruto noticed Sasuke's behavior, and started doing things to try and bug Sasuke to tell him what was wrong. Sasuke refused. Instead, he locked himself in his room and read more and more fanfiction, or worked out his frustration by practicing solo karate moves.

Needless to say Naruto wasn't one to sit around and do nothing about Sasuke not talking to him. Not to mention, Naruto was worried about Sasuke.

The only time Naruto could get Sasuke to do anything with him was when they did karate together. They both loved to practice it, and it was something that just seemed to come to them like second nature.

Naruto craved Sasuke's attention. He needed Sasuke to pay attention to him. While it had taken years for Naruto to finally admit it to himself, he actually liked that Sasuke usually only paid attention to him. Yet when Sasuke began to stop paying as much attention to him, a slight sense of fear began to well up in him. He tried to ignore it, and scoff it up to Sasuke's bad attitude.

But when Naruto noticed Sasuke was starting to avoid even playing videogames with him, it had started to really bother him. He was getting desperate to figure out why his best friend was pushing him away.

When Sasuke wasn't happy, something in Naruto tugged at his heart. After all, Sasuke was his first real friend. He had chosen Sasuke to become a part of their family, and it hurt that Sasuke seemed to be rejecting him.

Two months previous Naruto logged on to Sasuke's computer without permission in an attempt to see why Sasuke was spending so much more time online than with _him_.

Naruto found the answers he was looking for, even if he had no idea what to make of it. When Sasuke caught him on his computer Naruto claimed he was looking for some new fics to read because Naruto was in desperate need of more fics.

Sasuke thought he might have been lying, trying to find answers as to why Sasuke was avoiding him.

Either way, it didn't matter what Naruto had been trying to find. It was obvious Naruto had seen all the Nori/Jun and Jun/Nori fics in Sasuke's favorites. Naruto didn't confront him about it when Sasuke demanded for him to get out of his room. In fact, Naruto seemed more than pleased to hurry away.

Sasuke didn't like how Naruto was clearly uncomfortable around him after that.

Naruto wasn't sure what to make of Sasuke's curiosity. He also wasn't sure how to handle the fact of how curious the idea of Nori and Jun – of Sasuke and himself together had made him.

It wasn't until last month (a full month after the "discovery") that Naruto finally decided to confront Sasuke about the fics when Sasuke still refused to talk about it.

"Why do you have so many Nori/Jun stories in your favorites' folder? You realize that they have gay sex in them, don't you?" Naruto finally blurted out as he walked into Sasuke's room.

"They're well written, detailed, and show better character growth," Sasuke replied, minimizing the story on his computer which happened to be another Jun/Nori fic – and he was right in the middle of reading a sex scene between the two of them no less. He turned around in his seat to face Naruto, doing his best to hide any and all embarrassment from his face. The total embarrassment of getting caught reading the story had at least had the effect of killing his semi-hard erection.

"Isn't it weird?" Naruto prompted.

"Isn't what weird?"

"They're both guys and stuff..."

"I didn't realize you were discriminatory against another person's choice in lifestyle-"

"I'm not!" Naruto interrupted on the defensive.

"Then what's the problem? The pairing seems very close to the storyline in the anime as they're so close to each other."

"But two guys being good friends doesn't mean they're in love with each other, and it especially doesn't mean that they go around wanting to screw each other. Being close doesn't mean there's anything romantic at all! Guys can be close and mean nothing by it. I mean, we're not like that!" Naruto said with a blush. Sasuke found he couldn't quite meet Naruto's eyes for that statement.

"Of course. But guys can be close and be pulled together romantically."

"Well, yeah, I guess, but...doesn't it bother you?"

"Should it? They're just stories," Sasuke said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"I mean, don't you kinda think of Nori like you and Jun like me?"

"What are you implying?"

"Reading those fics is like reading about us having sex!" Naruto blurted out, his face scarlet red. Sasuke didn't say anything, his heart beating faster. Of course he'd known what Naruto had implied when he'd mentioned Nori being like him and Jun like Naruto; he just wanted to see if Naruto thought so too.

"You thought that?" Sasuke murmured seriously, trying to turn his insecurities around on Naruto.

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean, but yes and, well, didn't it make you wonder?" Naruto asked uncertainly.

Silence settled between them. Apparently Sasuke wasn't the only one whose ideas had been influenced by those fics.

He watched Naruto's face and was fascinated when he saw a strange look of curiosity come over Naruto. It shocked Sasuke to see Naruto so blatantly curious about how their relationship could develop into something more.

"Somewhat," Sasuke finally said honestly. Naruto paused, scratching the back of his head nervously. "You've been reading these types of fics longer than just when you found them on my computer, haven't you?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, maybe. It's, I dunno. Safe that way. To think of us like that; it's like it's us but not."

Even though Naruto's words held no real substance to them, Sasuke felt he understood completely.

Both blushed as they realized they'd both wondered what it was like to be with the other.

"What does this mean?" Naruto asked. Sasuke shrugged.

What were they to say when they realized they'd both been secretly wondering what it would be like to be involved sexually with someone they'd known for half their life? Well, maybe not _sexually_ but more than friendly. Okay, sexually.

"Who knows?"

"You're the genius! You're supposed to know!" Naruto yelled angrily.

There was a strange excitement in the pit of Sasuke's stomach.

"Well," Sasuke began, "It could mean nothing. We're both curious though. I've read through various articles, and more than fifty percent of the populace wonders about what it would be like to engage in same-sex acts. People are curious beings. We should test it."

"Test what?"

"To see if there could be a spark of _something _between us, or if it's just because we're both curious."

Sasuke had a feeling Naruto was thinking about asking what "it" was. But Sasuke also knew Naruto knew what he was talking about. Testing "it" meant testing the relationship between the two of them. Were they just two close friends? Or could they be like in all those fics where Nori and Jun pushed their relationship further?

"How do we test that? A k-kiss?" Naruto stuttered, blushing madly.

"Yeah," Sasuke said, jumping at the opportunity. He couldn't deny that he'd thought about it and had wanted to kiss Naruto for months now. More than kiss in fact. But a kiss would be a nice start.

Sasuke swallowed and felt his stomach flip-flop now that it was out in the open. A kiss. He was going to kiss Naruto. Somehow it was more nerve-wracking than erotic. Wasn't it supposed to be romantic and sexy like in the stories?

Naruto licked his lips. Feeling awkward, Sasuke stood up. Naruto wiped his hands on his pants, clearly unsure of what to do with them.

They moved toward each other hesitantly. Sasuke felt overly aware of how the few times he'd kissed anyone seemed like too long ago to remember how to kiss properly. He also didn't recall enjoying kissing any of those girls much either.

Naruto didn't think the tentative kiss that he'd shared with Hinata had prepared him for a kiss with Sasuke, but it wasn't like it was going to matter how good a kisser he was, right? It was supposed to be a terrible kiss anyway since they were both guys. It was _Sasuke._ He was just being stupid for being curious.

There was nothing romantic or sexual between them, Naruto thought firmly.

Leaning in slowly, their lips finally touched, and Sasuke and Naruto's eyes fluttered closed. Neither moved their mouths, instead just let the kiss be a slight pressure of lips against lips. They kept their hands at their sides, no interaction in the kiss what so ever.

Their hearts beat rapidly at the thought of what they were doing, of the final answer to their curiosity.

It was nice. Soft, tentative, but it sent a thrilling jolt through both of them.

"What are – ?!"

Sasuke and Naruto broke apart at lightning speed, looking mortified as they saw Kakashi standing in the doorway, staring at them in shock.

"He – "

"I – " Naruto and Sasuke spoke at the same time. "Nothing happened!" Naruto exclaimed in a rush as he stormed out of Sasuke's room past Kakashi. Sasuke didn't look after Naruto as he sat down in his chair, spinning it around to look at his computer screen, his back facing Kakashi, his cheeks a bright red.

After a moment, Kakashi left the room without a word.

Nobody spoke about what happened. Even so, it was obvious that Kakashi kept an extra close eye on them and their behavior after the little "incident."

Because of their embarrassment, Sasuke and Naruto had been avoiding each other even more. Not that it was difficult at school. They rarely spoke on school property – fought, yes, spoke, no.

In middle school they had both been almost inseparable during school hours and were known for singling out bullies and beating them up. Of course, that was how they had managed to get expelled from school. Twice. They had a tendency to go overboard when dealing with bullies.

Back on their first day of high school they had concocted a plot to keep from being expelled from school for beating up bullies. Naruto knew he would want to hurt any bullies there, and Sasuke knew that if Naruto did that, the bullies would go after Naruto, and Sasuke would come and have to save Naruto's butt. However, if they fought each other and staged how to look so amazing in their fights, bullies would be so scared of them that they wouldn't want to pick fights with them, or pick on innocent kids in fear that Sasuke or Naruto might beat them up. At least, that's what Naruto had reasoned.

Plus, if they pretended to be heated rivals, no one would suspect anything when they got into a fight at school and got suspended from school to play videogames. It was like a game: a secret mission. Pretend to be hated rivals yet really be best friends, secretly getting kicked out of school whenever they wanted to hang out together.

It was easy to avoid each other at school because they'd been keeping this façade up for years.

At home it was a little more obvious that they were avoiding one another – more obvious to each other and to Kakashi as well.

However, when the release date to Ninja Chronicles 7: Return of Order was set to come out, the two started planning on getting kicked out of school again so they'd have time off to play the newest game.

Sasuke had to admit that the title intrigued him. Nori and Jun's kanji were forms of the word "order" (even if Nori got teased about how nori also meant seaweed).

Now that they had the extra time to talk, now that they were no longer planning on how to get suspended from school, the memory of the fact that they should be talking about the kiss that they shared hung heavily between them.

It was something they _needed_ to talk about. Something had happened that they shouldn't avoid talking about.

Both of them had enjoyed it: Sasuke to his embarrassment and Naruto to his great surprise.

So now that they were home alone, not avoiding each other, they had plenty of time to talk.

Instead, they went back to playing their videogame.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Battle of Mock Proportions**

Just fyi, the next few chapters will all be about Naruto and Sasuke's past. Hope you enjoyed this! ~ Jelp


	4. Chapter 4: Battle of Mock Proportions

**Like Ninja Fighters**

**Chapter 4: Battle of Mock Proportions**

_Four Years Previously, Day Before Start of Freshman Year_

"Do you think this school will have lots of bullies like the last two?" Naruto wondered. Sasuke all but rolled his eyes.

They both sat outside of their new home, enjoying the last day before school began.

"We can't get expelled again for fighting off bullies, even if there are hundreds. Kakashi was already pissed enough the first two times. If there's a third time, he might actually go through with his threat to send us both to separate boarding schools. You know he's worried that the psychologists keeping an eye on us have already hinted that they want to take us away from him. Not that they have anything legit to use."

"Exactly. It's all nonsense! They can't take us away from him. So there's no real problem with that. But what's the point of knowing karate if we can't use it?"

"It's for self-defense."

"Self-defense? We don't need self-defense! We need to protect those who can't protect themselves. If we can't fight off bullies who pick on other kids, who do we fight?"

"We don't fight, that's the point. We are not ninja, Naruto. And if you really want to spar, we fight against each other."

"Yeah, I guess, but it just pisses me off when those bullies start stuff with other kids. How can I not want to pound their faces in?"

"But when you do that, they want revenge, and I have to bail your ass out of trouble."

"Come on! I can take fifteen against one. It just helps when it's the two of us 'cuz it goes faster."

"But then I get expelled with you."

"Then let me handle them on my own when they gang up on me!"

"No one else but me is allowed to punch you."

"Gee, thanks," Naruto gritted out sarcastically. "I love you too."

Sasuke smirked and gave a grunt of a laugh. A few moments passed in silence as they enjoyed their last day of summer. They'd had to move _again_ when they'd got kicked out of their last school. The first school they got kicked out of was when they were twelve. The most recent expulsion had happened at the end of the previous school year, so they hadn't yet switched schools.

Even so, they didn't know what to expect. Kakashi had moved them from the home they'd lived in since being together as a family, wanting them to live in an area where they wouldn't attract trouble.

Not that they always hadn't gotten into trouble as they had both been picked on for being orphans when they were younger. They were used to defending each other verbally, their bond close because of their similar pasts.

Still, both Sasuke and Naruto had felt guilty about the move. Kakashi, who had been able to spend most of his time home with them working on his computer games, now had to switch jobs because the place that he used to work out of wouldn't support their living expenses in the new area. He'd be gone a lot more from home and neither of them were overly pleased with that. Still, Kakashi had said he would be making a lot more money, and they would be living in a better area.

Even so, a better area didn't mean that there weren't any bullies or kids that didn't pick on anyone. They were everywhere. It just meant there were less of them – supposedly. Naruto wasn't convinced.

"What if we stage a fight?" Naruto mused.

"You're such an idiot. What's the point of that?"

"If you and I fight against each other we could sorta promote ourselves as being completely badass. If we look so cool, no one will want to challenge us, and just by being around, bullies would cower in fear of the _thought_ of us kicking their asses. Make ourselves look so dangerous no one will want to mess with us."

"They'll want to fight you more if they think you're a good fighter. That's the problem. You beat up a bully, he gets his buddies and they try and take revenge."

"Yeah but if _we_ get into a fight we can make ourselves look so awesome they'll be afraid to try anything. Plus, we're both new. We can spread rumors about how we've landed thirty guys in the hospital with how awesome our fighting is."

"Thirty-five. I think you're forgetting the five from in front of the movie theater."

"Those pansies?" Naruto scoffed, clearly not finding them worth counting in the number of people they actually had put into the hospital.

"They count; they had weapons. That and they would have hurt that group of girls pretty badly if we hadn't stopped them. But besides that, how are we going to pull this off? If we fight each other, how will it not seem obvious we set it up? After all, not only are we brothers, but we're best friends."

"We're adopted brothers. We have different surnames; no one will even know we live together unless we tell them ourselves."

"The staff will know."

"Brothers fight too, and because we're adopted, they'll probably expect us to fight more," Naruto did his best to reason.

"If we're fighting against each other, we can't tell them that we put thirty-five people into the hospital because then they'll realize we did that together."

"Well, true, but we can elude to other things."

"You mean allude, idiot."

Sasuke held his tongue about the overall proposal, still not liking the idea, even if Naruto was doing a fairly decent job of tying in a lot of logical explanations.

Blue eyes flashed as a hint of jealousy and sadness crossed them.

Naruto would never admit to it, but it bothered him that he wasn't as smart as Sasuke. Sasuke had always, and would always, be smarter than him in school. He had never been able to get his grades anywhere near Sasuke's.

One of the reasons Naruto had even come up with this plan was because, in a way, if he had a reason to stay away from Sasuke at school, it wouldn't be as painful as knowing that his own lack of intelligence kept him from being in the same academic classes as Sasuke.

"Besides, you're always in those genius level classes. Because of that, you and I are never in a class for long anyway. It's not like we see each other during school. I mean, we might have some extra classes together, you know the usual: gym or art, but didn't Kakashi want us to make other friends here anyway? We never make friends if it's just the two of us. We leave people out."

Naruto didn't add that it was usually Sasuke who prevented them from having other people join their two-man group. Sasuke was fairly anti-social. Having Naruto as a best friend was one thing: add one more person to the mix, and well, it didn't really _mix_.

"When you come up with stupid bull shit like this, it's easy to pretend I don't know you and that we're not friends," Sasuke grunted. Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"So is that a yes?"

"Hn."

* * *

On the first day of school, Sasuke and Naruto got on the bus at the same bus stop, but made sure not to sit with each other.

They were only in the same homeroom because their surnames were close to each other. Homeroom was only for the first few minutes of class; from there they would be sectioned off to their skill level once their schedules were handed out alphabetically. They didn't even talk when they got their schedules for the year, trying to make it look like they didn't know each other.

It wasn't very hard. There were many new students as there were five main middle schools that fed into this particular high school. Some students knew each other, but at least they weren't the only ones who didn't know anyone else in the classroom.

Quickly texting each other back and forth, they found out that the only subject that they had together was family consumer sciences two days out of a six day changing cycle of classes.

**Received message 7:58am:** _This sux. w/is famly consum scs neway?_

**Sent message 8:01am:** _Home economics. Learn to spell and stop texting me idiot. Class started._

**Received message 8:02am:** _Loser. I no how 2 spel. Evry1 txts skool. end of day, meet me frt o skool 4 fite._

It was easy, really. They didn't even fake an argument. People didn't need to know why they were fighting, just see that they could fight and that they could fight _well_.

Sasuke caught Naruto's eye in the main entrance. There was a crowd of people standing in front of the doors that led in and out of the school. The loud hustle and bustle made it hard to hear conversations unless the person speaking stood right next to the person they were speaking to, or unless someone was shouting. Hence part of their reason not to even bother faking an argument – it would be too hard for others to hear them anyway.

As they approached each other, they brushed shoulders, putting their plan into action.

Naruto dropped his books (he'd later say Sasuke had pushed them out of his hand, and Sasuke had refused to pick them up.) Sasuke also dropped his books, and would later use the same story, making it hard to place the blame on either of them.

Sasuke reacted first; he grabbed Naruto's collar and pulled him closer. There was more room down one end of the front of the eight doors that all the students were currently trying to file out through. Sasuke blocked Naruto's return punch in his grasp, and Sasuke sent a kick to Naruto's shin, using his attacks to silently tell Naruto where they would continue the fight. Naruto easily dodged the kick to his shin, but he got the message. They had already decided that they didn't want to get expelled, so no major harm done to each other, or to any bystanders. That and Sasuke had only agreed as long as there were no others involved.

"Fight!" Someone yelled almost immediately after the two had come to blows. It didn't take long for a large crowd to gather around to watch what was going on.

Their attacks came in such a flurry it was hard for the students to even see what was going on. A body slam. A flip. A running jump kick, block, slam. Twist the wrist. Downward slash with the hand.

Kick, twist, punch.

They moved even faster as the fight wore on, making it hard for people to tell exactly what they were doing – and for them to see that Naruto and Sasuke weren't really landing blows on the other.

"Enough!"

Sasuke and Naruto broke apart easily as two administrators stopped them by grabbing them by the scruff of their necks.

"Kuso," Sasuke hissed. They'd thought they'd have enough time to break up the fight before any teachers saw them. It would be less of a punishment if they weren't caught in the act, even if students later identified them. Still, even as they were being escorted to the office, they could hear the kids' reactions to their fight.

"Are they seniors?"

"Did you see how fast they moved?"

"That black haired guy is hot!"

"Did you see the way that blond tossed that guy? He's so cool!"

"Wow! That was awesome. Just like in the movies!"

Sasuke was silently wishing he'd gotten to punch Naruto harder. Why had he agreed to go along with this stupid plan? Maybe because without Naruto, he knew he really didn't get along with anyone else. He knew that if he said yes, maybe people would have an excuse to stay away from him. Not to mention Naruto could have some other friends, and it would be okay. Sasuke wouldn't get jealous because it was part of a ruse.

Sasuke found he was angrier at himself than his best friend. He should have told Naruto no.

Sasuke glanced sidelong at Naruto as they sat down in the principal's office, gauging Naruto's reaction to their predicament. Naruto gave him a miserable look of apology.

At least Naruto felt bad about how they were going to get expelled their first day. He knew it was his fault as he had goaded Sasuke into it. Hopefully Sasuke wouldn't be too pissed at him.

"I see you two gentleman have a record of fighting," the principal said, flipping through their records.

"He's an idiot," Sasuke stated, "And he started it."

"You're a bastard! You put your hands on me first! You started the initial attack, AND you pushed my books out of my hands."

"You pushed my books first. Oh, I also hate you."

"And I hate you!"

It was then and there that Principal Sarutobi assumed that the two didn't get along at home. He actually took pity on them after reading both of their histories. Sasuke was orphaned after his brother murdered the family, and because of the tragedy, Sasuke had a history of mental instability. Naruto and his parents had been in a terrible car accident, the accident killing off his parents and initially leaving Naruto terribly crippled. It was amazing really. He had been paralyzed from the waist down, and the doctors had thought he'd be in a wheelchair the rest of his life. Seven months later he was walking, and in another four months, his health was like that of any other child his age. His recovery was really miraculous.

Knowing that the two boys could be acting up in school because of their past, Sarutobi decided he'd give them the benefit of the doubt.

"It is your first day here. Fighting is not to be tolerated. Under any other circumstance, a fistfight would result in a three day out of school suspension. As I'm feeling generous today, instead you will serve two consecutive after school detentions – two hours long each."

"Two after school detentions?" Sasuke breathed.

"That's it?" Naruto asked, looking surprised.

It was a lot better than Sasuke had expected too.

Unfortunately, by the time they had finished in the principal's office, they had missed their bus home.

Kakashi was less than pleased to get a phone call at his new job stating they'd gotten in a fight on their first day of school and that he would have to come and pick them up.

"At least it was with each other and no one got expelled," Naruto pointed out as he rode in the back of Kakashi's car. He should have kept his mouth shut.

"You two should know better!" Kakashi snapped. Both Sasuke and Naruto flinched. It was rare that Kakashi ever raised his voice. He was usually lenient, but with their past expulsions, he seemed to be cracking down on them finally. "I didn't teach you karate for you to keep getting in fights. I thought you both knew better than this. I wish I had never taught it to you." The disappointment was thick in the air. Naruto looked ashamed of himself, and Sasuke did his best not to look as disappointed in himself as he felt.

Kakashi was right. They shouldn't have gotten into a fight at all.

Kakashi sighed, and spoke more gently.

"If the social services think that you two are not getting along or are a problem together, they will take one or both of you away. Sasuke has a history of mental instability," Naruto shot a glance at Sasuke who didn't seem to take offense to this statement. It was something that they already knew, but somehow, hearing Kakashi speak about it made it seem more realistic – and more of a potential threat. "They're already suspicious because of the last two expulsions. Just don't do anything stupid that will separate our family."

The next day, the two of them were on their best behavior at school, but the talk of their fight buzzed throughout the halls. They were instantly known, and they didn't need to spread rumors about how they had put thirty-five guys in the hospital; even wilder rumors spread without their aid.

"Ne, Naruto-kun, I heard that you took on twenty gang members all by yourself!"

"Sasuke-kuuun! I heard you stopped a gun-robber at a store with your bare hands!"

"Did you really win first place at the national karate championship for two years in a row?"

"Are you an assassin?"

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

"Will you go out with me?"

Comments buzzed at them from _everyone_. One of the teachers asked Naruto if he did body guard duty on the side. Naruto basked in all the attention that it gave him. He loved feeling and playing the part of the cool hero.

Not to mention that for the first time in his life, other people thought he was as good as Sasuke at something. It made it worth it: like he was worth being Sasuke's friend because he was the only one as cool as he was at fighting.

Unfortunately, Sasuke didn't know what to do with all the attention. He had never liked being noticed before. Even though people had always paid attention to him – when he was younger due to his family name, and then due to his orphan status – he'd never been very social. He hated large crowds of people that fawned over him.

Jealousy crept over Sasuke as he noticed that Naruto didn't seem at all fazed at the attention as he let two girls hang on either arm over at his locker. Sasuke slid out his mathematics book from his locker and put it in his bag in order to do his homework.

They had decided to pretend not to be best friends in order to pull off the stupid scheme that Naruto had concocted. But now, with the attention that everyone was bestowing on Naruto, a strange trickle of fear welled up within Sasuke. What if Naruto had planned the fight to get instant popularity? What if Naruto was looking for someone else to replace him as his best friend?

Sasuke slammed his locker shut at the stupid thought that had gone through his head. Naruto was always coming up with dim-witted ideas. It didn't mean he was pushing Sasuke away.

And Sasuke pointedly ignored Naruto, not even having to feign disliking him at that moment as he felt a strange swell of hatred swirl at his best friend for making him doubt the strongest bond he had.

**Next Chapter: A New Battlefront

* * *

**

The next chapter is one of my favorites! Hope you liked this chapter and will enjoy the next one as well. ~ Jelp


	5. Chapter 5: A New Battlefront

Originally beta'd by Master of the Rebels back on August 16th. Since then I've added stuff that she hasn't looked over yet.

And yes, this is early because I'll be away this weekend. Enjoy!

**Like Ninja Fighters**

**Chapter 5: A New Battlefront**

_Freshman Year_

The instant popularity that came with Naruto and Sasuke's fight only increased in the weeks to come.

Naruto had made friends with basically anyone that talked with him. He enjoyed spending time with people other than Sasuke. While he loved to hang out with Sasuke, spending time with them made him feel important and special somehow. And in a strange way, comparing these new relationships with the one he had with Sasuke actually increased how much he valued his friendship with Sasuke.

There was no one in the world that could replace how close he and Sasuke were. Not to mention, Naruto had always worried about how closed off Sasuke acted. Forcing him to meet new people would be good for him, Naruto was sure of it.

In fact, it was the first time that Sasuke had finally made some new friends.

Sort of.

He had been invited to what was clearly a high-society-type table at lunch, consisting of people from wealthy and fairly well-known families.

Apparently, even though his family was dead, the Uchiha Company was still doing well, and several of the families of people at this particular high-school knew his name. Kakashi had once told both him and Naruto that their families had a large amount of savings for them if they ever needed it. Sasuke never really questioned it before, though now he wondered how much a "large amount" was. From the reception at the table, the family company was doing _extremely _well. And while Sasuke didn't really give a damn about the status, it seemed important to these students at least. While everyone else at the table had told him what company they had come from, and what the businesses entailed, Sasuke frankly didn't care.

It was just a place to sit where no one really bothered him. A quiet table.

To his right sat sophomore Hyuuga Neji. Next to him sat another sophomore named Gaara. A surname had been provided, but Sasuke didn't remember it. In fact, he forgot a lot of the surnames at his table. Next to Gaara was a junior he thought might have been named Juugo. Another junior, Kimimaro, was on Juugo's other side. A senior boy who he had initially mistaken as a girl, named Haku, sat next to him. Fellow freshmen Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji filled the rest of the seats at the eight-seater table. He thought Shikamaru's family owned a computer software company while Chouji's family owned a chain of well known bakeries. He only remembered their family companies because they were in his grade.

They were all quiet souls: save for Chouji who sometimes munched a little loudly on his food (but who was otherwise not really talkative). The way he shoveled food into his mouth reminded Sasuke of Naruto.

The eight boys filled all the seats on their exclusive table, and it was clear that no visitors were readily welcomed.

Sasuke looked around him, feeling lonely, but grateful to be able to sit somewhere where people didn't pester him about his fighting skills. Not to mention only two days ago, the school had collectively taken a national exam, and Sasuke had scored perfectly along with only a few other students in his grade. People had since started remarking about his impressive academic abilities along with his fighting skills.

If Naruto had shared his lunch (Sasuke had second lunch and Naruto third), he would have given up this stupid façade just to be able to sit with his best friend.

There didn't seem to be any bullies in this school: at least there weren't any that Sasuke had seen. Idiots who said cruel things, yes, bullies, no.

"Sasuke-kun!" a girl simpered, as she hovered unwelcome over the table, interrupting Sasuke's quiet bubble. He glared up at her, hoping she would go away. He didn't prompt her to continue talking, but he didn't need to. She was one of those apparent idiots who didn't realize her presence was not welcome, and she was well known for loving to say cruel things about anyone and everyone. Again, this school didn't seem to have bullies, but there were a lot of kids with sharp and hurtful tongues. She was one of them.

"I heard Naruto-kun called you a pansy, and that he would have beaten you up if those administrators hadn't stopped you! You're not going to let him get away with that, are you?" she baited, playing with the cell phone in her hand.

Sasuke looked nonplussed.

"Are you trying to start a fight between the two? Throwing insults of what you supposedly heard back and forth in order to be an instigator; it's pathetic," Neji said, putting the girl down.

"Whatever happened between the two seems over. Why does everyone have to keep talking about it?" Gaara said, crossing his arms, also putting the girl's enthusiasm at their rivalry down.

"It was, I mean – I just wanted Sasuke-kun to know that Naruto-kun was making fun of him-"

"If Uzumaki did say such things, it's most likely because he can't fight and was only able to taunt Sasuke with words," Shikamaru said wisely. Sasuke thought that would be true in most cases, but as he knew that Naruto could fight, he didn't bother to give a sign of agreement.

"I-" the girl looked at a loss of what to say, and she headed off. Sasuke wasn't sure if he should feel bad for the girl or not. He decided on not as she was normally very spiteful and had tried to get him to fight Naruto, even if what she said was probably true.

Naruto most likely _had _called him a pansy. After all, Sasuke had agreed to let him.

Just that morning Naruto asked if he could insult Sasuke because people were starting to wonder why he hadn't started another fight with him yet. Naruto said that he wanted to look cool by not backing down if people tried to press him about getting into another fight with Sasuke. Even so, Naruto's loyalty to Sasuke made it hard for him to insult him without permission. (Insulting Sasuke to his face didn't count; those insults came easily and often.)

Sasuke had agreed for Naruto to call him a pansy because really, it was a rather pathetic and clearly not badass thing to say. He thought it was rather funny at the time: one, because that was the best insult that Naruto had seemed to come up with, and two, because Naruto had actually asked _permission_ to insult Sasuke in front of others. Sure they insulted each other a lot, but they never knowingly insulted the other to anyone else.

Now, having heard it from that girl's lips, it wasn't so funny.

It wasn't funny in the least, especially since the girl coming to him forcibly reminded Sasuke of another incident from years before.

One of Itachi's female friends once told Sasuke that Itachi thought he was a pansy. The memory had been one he hadn't thought about, but now that it had surfaced, other memories he didn't want to think about came hurtling upon him. Sasuke began to rub the scar Itachi had given him on the back of his neck before he realized what he was doing. He fisted his hands and laid them on his lap.

"What was that fight about between you and Uzumaki?" Neji inquired curiously. Sasuke shrugged, trying to not think about Itachi as he clenched and unclenched his fists underneath the table.

"He just rubs me the wrong way," Sasuke said, and amongst this particular group, he was grateful that that was all he had to say.

Meanwhile, as Sasuke sat eating lunch, Naruto was going a bit overboard insulting Sasuke in his class.

He was in the middle of Math and for once had actually finished his classwork early. Someone had made a snide remark that maybe Sasuke had knocked all his mathematic abilities out of his head which was why he was such a poor student, and maybe he was finally getting some of his brains back now that he'd had time to heal.

The instigator then added that Sasuke was a pretty awesome student academically, and that even if Naruto could best him at a fight, Naruto was no match for his brains.

Naruto didn't take too kindly to this.

One of the reasons Naruto had started the charade in the first place was because Sasuke was _always_ put in the better academic classes. Naruto, try as he might, never came close to being in the same class.

It hurt to know that his own lack of intellectual abilities kept him from being with Sasuke during school. The façade, as stupid as it was, had made him feel better in a weird way by pretending that he and Sasuke weren't _supposed_ to be in the same class. In a strange way, it made it okay that Sasuke was smarter.

Instead of beating the kid up for what he said though, Naruto started bad mouthing Sasuke. He had always known Sasuke was better academically than him, but it still stung for someone else to point out what he already knew.

A girl behind him heard what he said about Sasuke and quickly texted one of her friends that had the same lunch as their beloved Sasuke-kun.

For the rest of the period, Naruto bad mouthed Sasuke, getting out his frustration that Sasuke would always be smarter than him, even though he had tried so hard to get in the same class as Sasuke. Putting Sasuke down actually made Naruto feel even worse rather than better about himself. He knew it was his own inability that kept them from being together. Sasuke hadn't done anything wrong.

By the time the bell rang for Naruto to go to his lunch period, and Sasuke to leave lunch and head to his next class, both were thinking less than friendly thoughts of the other. Naruto was feeling trumped by Sasuke, and Sasuke was feeling pushed to the side.

It therefore didn't bode well when Sasuke and Naruto actually bumped into each other as Sasuke headed out of the cafeteria as Naruto walked in.

Naruto glared at Sasuke, feeling petty because he knew that Sasuke didn't know what he'd done other than be his usual brilliant self. The look that Naruto gave Sasuke: one of true loathing – even if only a little bit – pushed Sasuke over the edge.

"What's your problem, dumbass?" Sasuke asked, mad that Naruto was looking at him like that, sick and tired of their charade and how Naruto seemed to pull it off effortlessly.

"Me?" Naruto demanded, rattled that Sasuke had called him dumb. "You're a loser! And an asshole!"

Sasuke's frustration of going through this stupid façade by pretending not to be Naruto's friend, worrying why Naruto was pushing him away, broke free at the anger in Naruto's words.

All the years of Sasuke always coming in first academically and others always putting it in his face that he would never best Sasuke in that arena likewise got to Naruto.

Sasuke and Naruto literally bashed knuckles as they simultaneously punched out to hit the other.

"FIGHT!" Someone screamed enthusiastically, as a crowd quickly swarmed around them. Sasuke idly noticed how his lunchtime "friends" were standing toward one end of the circle that had gathered around them, curious as to what was going on, and clearly not going to stop their fight.

It only took half a moment to register this as Naruto used Sasuke's distraction as he dropped to his hands and swiped his leg behind Sasuke's knees, knocking him down.

Sasuke allowed the momentum of his fall to help him as he tumbled, bending in half backward on the way down. He caught himself on his hands before he pushed off the ground, completing the action of a back flip. He put his feet in a balancing stance, his hands already in a block position as he anticipated Naruto's move, blocking the attack to his torso.

When Naruto used his other fist to punch at Sasuke, his supposedly best friend gripped his forearm, blocking the attack and twisted Naruto's arm to the side.

Letting out a curse, Naruto put his free hand on the grip on his arm and used the force of pushing off against the hold to twist his body around. The twisting motion dislodged Sasuke's grip, and Sasuke stumbled backward slightly as Naruto put distance between the two.

Naruto rubbed his arm where Sasuke had twisted him and shook it out before jabbing at Sasuke's side.

Not having gotten good footing yet, Sasuke stumbled again, falling heavily into Naruto who took the brunt of their fall, not having expected Sasuke to fall forward on top of him.

Choruses of "Fight! Fight! Fight!" echoed all around them as people cheered both of them on, only a few telling them to break it up. Those voices got quickly drowned out by the captivated, rowdy high-school audience.

Sasuke jabbed his elbow down onto Naruto's chest, doubly knocking the wind out of him from both the fall and his hit.

Naruto coughed in pain even as he smashed his hand up into Sasuke's face.

Sasuke stumbled backward as the pain in his face made him see stars, even as blood began to gush from his nose. Naruto coughed as he wrapped an arm around his torso, but stumbled to get to his feet. Sasuke wiped the blood on the back of his hand, and he balled the bloodied hand into a fist just as Naruto did the same.

Sasuke went high as Naruto went low, Sasuke bashing his fist into the side of Naruto's nose as Naruto ground his fist into Sasuke's ribs. They both landed heavily on the ground.

A shrill whistle startled them as the Gym teacher, Maito-sensei, and the wood shop teacher, Yamato-sensei, broke through the group of students around them and pulled them each to their feet. They yelled at the crowd to break up before Maito-sensei grabbed Sasuke and Yamato-sensei grabbed Naruto, marching the two to the principal's office.

Naruto and Sasuke looked ahead stubbornly, both refusing to look at each other, feeling betrayed and hurt at how all out the other had fought.

"You two, again?" Principal Sarutobi demanded as Maito-sensei and Yamato-sensei briefly explained what had happened before going back to teach their respective classes.

"Well?" Sarutobi demanded as both teens seethed.

Neither said anything, and the principal made a noise of disgust before the nurse came in, tending to the two boys while Sarutobi called Kakashi to come pick them up. They were both suspended for three days.

Initially, Kakashi was beyond pissed when he saw that his two adopted sons had gotten into another fight. Yet his anger faded when he saw that they were both genuinely mad at each other. He'd never seen them mad at each other except for the very first time that they had met.

He'd never had to handle them at odds before. Instead of reaming them out like he had last time, he let the awkward silence fill the car.

The only reaction other than pissed off at the world that Kakashi was able to pull from them was when he headed into a parking lot in the middle of the new town they lived in.

"Why're we here? And, uh, where's here?" Naruto asked, confused.

"It's the doctor's office. The school nurse said you both may have broken noses, but are very lucky that you didn't crack each others' ribs. You have put thirty-five people in the hospital. You must both realize that you're skilled enough to kill when not thinking about it. Do you know how badly you could have hurt each other?" Kakashi asked mildly.

"Naruto doesn't care who he hurts, so why should I?" Sasuke asked, acting and feeling too hurt to care that he was being petty.

"Of course Sasuke knows he could have hurt me. He's a genius who knows fucking everything, isn't he?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms away from Sasuke.

Kakashi sighed and scratched his head in confusion. He'd almost wished he'd had this problem before so he had some experience on how to handle it. He was also under the impression that boys fought out their differences, and once the fight was over, everything was back to normal again.

They were thankfully in and out of the doctor's office fairly quickly – no broken noses or ribs – but they were to ice their hurt areas and take some over the counter pain meds. Kakashi knew they had a high tolerance for pain and expected neither to bother taking care of themselves.

If they were on good terms, he would actually have expected them to spar later that night just to prove how "tough" they were.

Upon returning home, Kakashi was unsurprised to find that Naruto and Sasuke retired themselves to their rooms. After they had marched up the steps, both slamming their doors did Kakashi finally say jokingly to himself: "Both of you go to your rooms. No videogames tonight," he murmured sardonically, looking at the only videogame console located on the first floor.

For the first time Sasuke and Naruto were grateful that they no longer shared a room and instead had rooms across the hall.

Later that night, Sasuke and Naruto seethed at each other as they both came out of their rooms at the same time to take a shower.

Neither moved down the hall toward the bathroom.

"What was the glare for?" Sasuke asked, trying to sound angry, instead failing as he couldn't manage to keep the hurt out of his voice. Naruto grimaced and felt guilty at how betrayed Sasuke sounded.

"You're smarter than I am," Naruto admitted grudgingly.

"Obviously, but that doesn't explain the glare," Sasuke bit out. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"You don't have to be a bastard about it! Someone made fun of me because I got done early in math, and the guy said maybe you had addled my brains and they were finally coming back. You're better than me at that kind of stuff, I know that, okay? Not everyone can be as smart as you when the rest of us have to work our asses off!" Naruto yelled at him.

Sasuke was honestly surprised. He knew that Naruto often mentioned how Sasuke was always in higher classes than him, but he'd never seemed so bitter about it before.

"And I heard you made it into that smart and wealthy table at your lunch! So I'm sure you feel proud of all that, right? That's why I'm such a dumbass?" Naruto demanded, angrily.

"I said that because someone said you called me a pansy-"

"I TOLD you I was going to say that you-" Naruto started in incredulous.

"And it hurt."

Naruto's words stopped dead.

"I think it was something my brother called me once, but it was one of his friends who told me," Sasuke said, looking off to the side, and Naruto looked at Sasuke in shock. Sasuke rarely talked about his brother. "It...it just hurt knowing you said it and someone else repeated it to me. Even if I knew you didn't mean it, it still hurt for some reason that the same thing had happened with Itachi."

Sasuke's hand reached up and began playing with his scar again. Gently, Naruto reached out his hand and grasped Sasuke's wrist, tugging it away. Naruto gave Sasuke's wrist a reassuring squeeze before dropping his hand down.

"You're a bastard, not a pansy," Naruto said, grinning slightly. Sasuke snorted.

They shared a comforting half-smile that let them know everything was okay again. When the moment of relief passed, they both remembered what they were doing in the hall in the first place, holding their shower stuff.

The two of them both eyed the door to the bathroom and then eyed each other up before both dashing to get to the shower as they jabbed at the other's hurt ribs to get into the bathroom first.

It led to a monstrous water and shared shower fight that resulted in lots of water getting spilled on the floor. Naruto poured all of Sasuke's expensive shampoo down the drain. In retaliation, Sasuke managed to drop the soap underneath Naruto's foot which resulted in him falling his naked ass on it, which left (as Sasuke pointed out), a bruise that spelled out the word DIAL backward on Naruto's right ass cheek.

Naruto was actually rather amused that he could look in the mirror, and it spelled it out normally. Sasuke didn't point out that it looked like Sasuke had stamped LAID on his ass except with the L and D looking a bit strange backward.

"While I'm glad to see that the two of you made up," Kakashi said sarcastically as he saw his two adopted sons horse playing: Sasuke with the showerhead off of its socket and pointed at Naruto while Naruto had the sink filled to the brim with water, using their supply of dixie cups to dunk the cups in it and then throw the full cups at Sasuke, "you've managed to make the water seep down through the bathroom floor to the kitchen ceiling."

Kakashi threw towels at both of them, chuckling at the bruise on Naruto. Sasuke seemed to have LAID one on him pretty good.

"After you clean up here, expect to mop up what has fallen to the kitchen floor from the water damage. Oh, and you will get to paint over the lovely new water stain you've created on your three days off: plus the rest of the kitchen to match it," Kakashi said, smiling happily.

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other, equal grins on their faces as Kakashi was bombarded with a blast from the showerhead and several dixie cups filled with water.

**Next Chapter: Mental Warfare

* * *

**

Special thanks to Darkalbino who pointed out the irony of DIAL being spelled backward on Naruto. My perverted mind actually missed that wonderful piece of manly lovin'!

Hope you liked this chapter. I did. ~ Jelp


	6. Chapter 6: Mental Warfare

**Like Ninja Fighters**

**Chapter 6: Mental Warfare**

_Sophomore Year_

It was getting toward the end of the school year and spirits were flying high.

Sasuke and Naruto's spirits were soaring even higher as they were both planning on their final fight for the year. The new Ninja Chronicles Game Six was due out, and they had planned on getting into a fight so they would have time to finish the game without the interruption of school.

"So what is the problem between you and that Naruto dude?" Suigetsu asked. As Haku had graduated the year before, freshman Suigetsu had been invited to their "exclusive" table, filling Haku's vacant spot. He was by far the loudest and weirdest of the group, but he had a well-known name. Sasuke wondered if next year he should switch tables; it would depend on who would replace Kimimaro and Juugo's vacant seats when they graduated. He didn't know if he would be able to tolerate Suigetsu his junior and senior years of high school if there were two more loud and obnoxious students to add to his annoying presence.

"He rubs me the wrong way," Sasuke said. He almost added, "But not as much as you do." Suigetsu waved his hand in the air as though to physically dismiss Sasuke's words.

"Yeah, yeah, so you've said. But, what I want to know is _how_ does he rub you the wrong way? It's like you two are okay, and then BAM! It's like you just _have_ to fight the guy. It's just kinda weird. You both are skilled fighters. No one can deny that. It's like you both had to find the other best fighter in the school and try and out do him. Was that the deal? You don't like him because he's the only one that can kick your ass? Do you both go to the same karate school or something? Don't they let you guys fight it out there?"

"Leave him alone," Juugo said.

However, it was surprising when Neji and Gaara actually turned to look at Sasuke curiously, also intent on pressing the subject.

"Naruto's not such a bad guy," Gaara said thoughtfully. Neji nodded. Sasuke hid his surprise, as well as the strange feeling of jealousy. For Neji and Gaara to back Naruto up like they were Naruto's friend hurt. Not because they were betraying Sasuke in anyway but because Sasuke hated the fact that they were paying attention to Naruto.

It was hard enough coming to terms with the fact that he was slowly falling for his best friend. He didn't know how he would deal with it if he had to compete with others falling for Naruto as well. And it didn't help that he was fairly certain that Gaara and Neji both liked guys.

This past year Sasuke had begun reading fan-fiction about Jun and Nori that had made Sasuke question the way he viewed his relationship with Naruto. Sasuke had always wondered if there was something more than friendship between Gaara and Neji. The idea of either one of them paying attention to Naruto made Sasuke wonder if they were interested in Naruto – and not in a friendly kind of way either.

"Gaara and I have shared gym class with him this past year," Sasuke did his best to hide his jealousy at realizing they had the opportunity to watch Naruto undress. "Initially we avoided him because we thought due to your constant disagreements that hanging around him would be unwise. Yet he doesn't seem bothered that we're your friends. It also doesn't seem to faze him when we speak about you in conjunction with our lunch discussions. In fact, he once said something strange when Gaara's sister went on a health food ran and insisted on packing a fresh salad for him every day. He said, 'Sasuke loves fresh veggies, especially tomatoes. They're his favorite food. Give them to him if you don't want them.' He said it so chipper," Neji recalled.

"It was as though it wasn't at all odd that he would know your favorite food," Gaara added sharing a look with Neji. Sasuke felt the tension leave him slightly as they seemed interested in Naruto's strange reaction rather than Naruto himself.

They all looked over to where Naruto sat with a group of his friends. An ache pulled in Sasuke's chest as he saw how happy Naruto was with everyone else at his table. He felt strangely excluded. It didn't matter that Naruto would later make sure to blab about his lunch time activities as well as what had happened to him the rest of the day, nor the fact that Sasuke would probably find it more amusing from Naruto's mouth than if he had had to sit with Naruto's friends. Sasuke still felt left out.

It didn't help that he'd started over-analyzing his feelings for Naruto. Like the fact that he was jealous in a manner he shouldn't be, as though Naruto belonged to him.

An intimate fan art of Nori and Jun where Nori held the front of Jun's clothing in a possessive manner, their lips almost touching crossed Sasuke's mind. Nori and Jun's faces were quickly replaced by his and Naruto's.

He really needed to stay away from the Nori/Jun slash community; it was starting to make him fantasize about Naruto every time he looked at his best friend.

Not to mention he didn't like thinking too deeply into why he had been so jealous of that one girl at Naruto's table, Hinata, when Naruto had said they'd kissed a week or so ago. All Sasuke could do to keep from yelling at the unsuspecting girl was to think that at least she had good taste.

But Sasuke pushed that thought into the back recessive of his mind, the place that didn't deal well with the emotions and loneliness linked to the murder of his family. Most recently, it had also been the place where he stored the strange feelings he'd been having for Naruto.

Sasuke knew that Naruto was his friend and cared for him.

This year hadn't been like last year; he and Naruto had gotten to spend more time together than the previous year in school while not spoiling the "façade" that Naruto still wanted to upkeep.

Sasuke did admit that pretending to get into fights did have its uses as they had had a fair amount of time home alone practicing their karate moves and playing videogames together when they did get suspended.

Yet the nicest change had been when they'd ended up getting put into the same computer class. They usually spent the entire class period sitting next to each other, typing up comments on their computers before quickly deleting it when the teacher walked passed. The best part was the teacher had sat them alphabetically by their surnames, so nothing seemed out of the ordinary that they sat next to each other.

Also seeing Naruto at lunch seemed to help Sasuke. The previous year they had gotten in fights so they could spend more time together. This year they didn't need to as often. However, one would be needed soon so they could play the new Ninja Chronicle's game.

Naruto had also confessed he was afraid Sasuke would start liking his quiet group more than him, and it appeased Naruto to see them as uptight as Sasuke. While it was a backhanded comment, Sasuke liked that Naruto seemed jealous of his friends. Petty, but true.

"Well, he is my brother," Sasuke finally said through his musings, figuring he might as well drop that bombshell and wait for their incredulous stares. "Adopted, naturally."

In fact, their surprise to his confession _was_ pretty funny. He'd never seen such strong reactions from the people at his table. Shikamaru actually looked up from where he'd had his head propped on his arms. There was a large red spot on his head from leaning on it too long. Chouji nearly choked on his handful of chips. Suigetsu gaped openly at Sasuke, while Gaara and Neji looked at him wide-eyed. Kimimaro looked thoughtful. Juugo nodded his head.

"I wondered about something like that. I saw this white-haired guy pick you both up from school after your fight last month. I thought it was weird, but didn't want to ask," Juugo noted.

"I'm glad I'm so interesting," Sasuke deadpanned.

"Dude, your _brother_? Adopted brother?" Suigetsu asked. "Brothers can totally suck."

"I think it's a shame that you two do not have a better relationship," Juugo said, and he placed a hand on Kimimaro's shoulder. The two of them often did act like brothers.

Or how brothers should act. Sasuke closed his eyes shut tight as the mental image of his biological brother, of Itachi standing over him with the knife flashed in front of his eyes.

Naruto was nothing like that. He was truly an amazing person.

"It is what it is," Sasuke said, wanting the subject dropped.

"That does suck. Having a brother you don't even want," Suigetsu said thoughtfully. The blood-shot, fanatical look in Itachi's eyes flashed before Sasuke, reminding him of a brother he truly didn't want. "So, uh, are you adopted or is he?"

The glare Sasuke gave Suigetsu made his slightly younger classman actually move a little further away. Still, he didn't stop pestering Sasuke.

"Come on, though, which is it?" Suigetsu said, grinning widely. "You or him?"

"Both of us," Sasuke quipped as his hand reached up unconsciously and began to rub the long since healed knife wound his biological brother had inflicted upon him.

Sasuke closed his eyes, as he remembered the ringing shots from the police as the dark figure of his brother fell on top of him, his body landing on him as the blade pierced his skin.

Memories of that night surfaced.

'No…no, no, no.' Sasuke chanted in his mind, trying to quell the images he had never learned to properly deal with.

The scent of blood rose out of no where, and Sasuke's eyes widened. There was no one bleeding around him, but the stench became stronger, the same vile reek that had accompanied the scene of finding his parents bloody bodies, warmed due to the heat of the summer evening.

Someone had said something to him but there was a ringing in his ears, his body feeling heavy. Bile rose in his throat and got stuck there as everything suddenly seemed too warm.

Across the lunch room, Naruto looked over to where Sasuke's elite table was.

Naruto tried his best not to look over there too often. He was grateful that Sasuke had made some friends. Really, he was. His best friend was too anti-social, even though a part of Naruto had always cherished that Sasuke wanted him to be his only friend.

The people in the group that Sasuke hung out with were all much more mature than he was. Often he wondered if Sasuke would one day wake up and think he was too childish…and dumb.

It was nice to see Sasuke interact with others, yet not seem as happy as he usually did with him. Selfish, but true.

Even as he told himself he shouldn't keep looking over, Naruto's eyes froze.

Sasuke was rubbing the back of his neck. His head was downcast and his eyes were closed, his features taught.

It was a look that Naruto instantly recognized, making his chest tighten and his eyes to go wide in fear.

Sasuke was mentally flashing back to the night his brother had killed his family.

It didn't happen often, but when Sasuke flash backed, Sasuke completely broke down. Naruto didn't want to see that happen and not in front of all these people. It always, always scared Naruto to watch Sasuke flashback.

One time Sasuke had started calling out for his parents which had made Naruto start to flash back to the way he'd woken up after the fatal car crash that had killed his parents. It made Naruto remember when he had called out desperately for his mom and dad. He could feel the crushing weight of the front of the car pressing close to his legs, his legs that were in the back of the car, as Naruto tried to call out for his already dead parents, his throat dry, almost unable to talk due to the pain, only to not get a response when he finally managed to –

He couldn't start doing this either.

"Shit," Naruto cursed. "Shit, fucking _shit_," he hissed, looking around as his friends looked at him a little strange.

Hinata, a girl that had kissed him the previous week but who he'd had to tell that he didn't feel the same way about her, spoke to him for the first time since that incident.

"Are you okay?" she asked concerned. Naruto's mind reeled.

"Didn't you see the gesture that asshole made at me?!" Naruto demanded. His heart beat sped up. He stood up and marched over to Sasuke's table.

The people at the table were looking at Sasuke in concern, but Naruto didn't have time to register that.

"Don't think I didn't see that, bastard!" Naruto said, wrenching Sasuke's arm away from his neck.

Sasuke's eyes flashed open.

His friends had been calling his name, but he didn't react until Naruto had come over.

"Sasuke," Naruto murmured, concerned. Sasuke felt his face flush as he could feel the eyes of his table members on him.

Instinctively, two cafeteria monitors came over to Sasuke and Naruto.

Sasuke and Naruto together meant a fight was likely to follow.

"Walk away, Uzumaki," one of them said.

Naruto ignored him. His eyes were locked on Sasuke's. Sasuke's fear began to drain away as he took a deep breath. All of Naruto's nerves went on tense at the slight tilt of Sasuke's body. The others around them expected it, and Sasuke needed a reason to get out of there. Naruto was prepared as Sasuke took a swipe at him, blocking the attack easily.

The two monitors grabbed them both before they started any heavy fighting and began marching them to the principal's office.

They both sat with a plunk into their seats.

Naruto had his face turned toward Principal Sarutobi who looked unsurprised to see them there.

A half hour later while they were waiting for Kakashi to pick them up, finally alone in the main office, Sasuke was able to turn to look at Naruto.

"Thanks," he murmured. Naruto nodded, rubbing his legs.

"It's so weird. My legs are feeling numb. Sometimes I still have dreams where I can't feel them at all," Naruto said.

"I didn't mean to make you start to flash back too," Sasuke said. His voice was dark and bitter. Naruto shrugged and yawned widely.

"Nah, all good. Nothing good at the end of the day anyway," Naruto said as he lazily slumped down in the chair, his arms crossing behind his head. Sasuke smirked, knowing Naruto was trying to make him feel better. Naruto had wood shop. He was really good at making things in it; he'd actually made an ornamental shelf to stash some of his ramen on.

They sat in silence for half a moment. "What made you think of…_it_?" Naruto asked tentatively, clearly not wanting to set Sasuke off again. Sasuke clamped his mind shut on the unwanted images.

"Suigetsu asked me what my issue with you was. Finally told him and the rest at the table that you're my adopted brother, and he wanted details on who was adopted. Started talking about how awful brothers were, and it made me think of my psycho of a brother. That kind of stuff."

Naruto clenched and unclenched his fist.

"That asshole. I'll skin him if he asks you anything like that again," Naruto snarled. Sasuke chuckled.

"He's not a fish to flay," Sasuke mused.

"Though you two are in deep fry," Kakashi quipped as he opened the door to the office, smiling at them in a "you two are in deep shit" kind of way.

He always had this way of arriving at the best time to come up with the smoothest entry line. Probably why he was late so often; he waited for the right moment to make a grand entrance.

"My fault," Sasuke spoke up.

"It wasn't his fault! It was Suigetsu's fault. Started asking Sasuke all these personal questions and Sasuke started flashing."

It took half a second for Kakashi to realize that they had come up with "flashing" as a term for their traumatic flash back experiences and not for flashing naked around the school. And while flashing naked around the school wasn't a welcome reason for them to get in trouble, he'd rather them be in trouble for doing something that was humorous rather than reliving their tragic pasts.

"Did you lash out at Naruto...?" Kakashi asked.

"No, I knew it was Naruto who I was hitting. He helped me get out of there without breaking down in front of everyone," Sasuke said as he followed behind Kakashi who seemed a little mellower now that he knew the reason behind them getting into trouble.

"Why didn't you tell Principal Sarutobi this? Save you from getting into trouble?" Kakashi asked. He scratched his head in thought.

"We did. He sent us home because Naruto started flashing back as well. He thought we needed a 'mental health day' to recover," Sasuke explained.

"Well, actually he wanted us to talk to a guidance counselor but we both refused, and we're getting one day of suspension for insubordination," Naruto said, nodding his head. Sasuke crossed his arms and glared at Naruto as though to say "you shouldn't have told him that part."

They had both refused talking to anyone other than each other about their problems. It seriously worried Kakashi, but at the same time, it truly did seem to make both of them worse when they were forced to talk to a therapist.

Both were so amazingly stubborn.

Upon arriving home, Kakashi's worry for them deepened when instead of going to play videogames like they usually did when having their normal teenage "issues" both went up to their rooms. Sasuke said he wanted to lie down. Naruto seemed to be following suit.

He'd give them both a couple hours before making sure they were okay. Usually they could bounce back on their own. If not, he would get out the candles and mini marshmallows. Nothing said good parenting like letting your child roast a little marshmallow over a candle: fire and sweets, what could be better for children?

At least, the kids seemed to think so, and always seemed to get them out of a funk. Smiling to himself, Kakashi thought he might do that anyway. After all, he had faith that they would be able to work through whatever was bothering them on their own.

Half an hour later, Naruto lay staring up at his ceiling. He too was worried, but more so about Sasuke than about himself. Unable to sleep (having hoped to play some Ninja Chronicles Four with Sasuke as that was his favorite videogame to play when he needed a distraction), he got up to see if maybe Sasuke was awake.

When Sasuke didn't answer the light knock to his door, Naruto opened it slightly before walking in.

Sasuke was curled up on his bed in a tight ball, but the blankets were all on the floor.

He was shivering despite how warm it felt in the room.

Naruto could feel a painful tug in his chest as he watched Sasuke move restlessly in his sleep.

Picking up the blanket, Naruto lightly put it on Sasuke before sitting on the edge of the bed. A memory of his mom once tucking him in brushed to the surface, and Naruto began to lightly stroke Sasuke's hair.

Slowly Naruto watched as the tension left Sasuke's body, and he seemed to be sleeping more peacefully.

Sighing, Naruto still lightly brushed his fingers through Sasuke's hair, thinking Sasuke looked kind of pretty when he was asleep.

A few moments passed, and Naruto began to get antsy.

He really, really wanted to play videogames with Sasuke. And Sasuke seemed relaxed now.

A wicked thought spread through Naruto's head as he leaned down, looking at Sasuke's slumbering face.

_Sluuuuuuuuuuuurp._

"Ick," Sasuke grunted groggily, wiping at his cheek. Looking around disoriented, he looked at Naruto's grinning face. "_Did you just lick me?_" Sasuke demanded.

In response, Naruto just grinned wider before turning tail and running as Sasuke threw his pillow at him.

Naruto's cackles rang through the house as the bounding _thump, thump, thump_ of them running and jumping around resounded in the house.

Kakashi smiled to himself as he dug out the mini marshmallows.

"When you're done running in circles, we're roasting mini marshmallows," Kakashi called as Naruto and then Sasuke ran by him.

A few seconds later he heard the front door open and then slam shut. Wisely, he went to the kitchen sliding door and made sure to unlock it so Naruto could enter it without getting slammed face first into it like he had the last time.

Kakashi sat down at the kitchen table and lit three candles, opening the bag before putting one of the little white puffs onto a fondue skewer.

"Oo! Marshmallows!" Naruto said upon sliding to a halt behind Kakashi. The kitchen sliding door slammed shut, followed by a loud _oof!_ as Sasuke slammed into Naruto's stilled form.

"Roasting marshmallows?" Sasuke asked. They both sat down, took up a skewer and several marshmallows.

At times like these Kakashi was grateful for Naruto's short attention span and Sasuke's sometimes pyromaniac-tendencies.

* * *

**Next Chapter: End Battle**

Hope you liked this chapter! And just fyi I have a completed story called Masked. It's Halloweenish and NaruSasu, in case you're interested. :D ~ Jelp


	7. Chapter 7: End Battle

**Like Ninja Fighters**

**Chapter 7: End Battle**

_End of Senior Year, Fifth Day of Ninja Chronicles 7_

"I think we're almost at the end," Naruto said in disbelief.

_ 49 hours 33 minutes game time._

"But we don't know how it's supposed to end. There could be a lot more that we have to do," Sasuke said frowning. There was a sense of disbelief in his voice as well. Clearly he too was feeling that same tightening in his stomach. It was Sunday. All their missed schoolwork was finished. They had completed all the tedious chores that Kakashi had given them as punishment for getting suspended since Saturday morning. Now with the ending to the game near at hand, and the ending of the show itself in almost 24 hours time, there was a high sense of anticipation.

And loss.

They didn't want it to end. For years, for over ten years, it had been something in their life that they had done together. They'd played the videogames; watched the anime; read the fanfiction.

Naruto had even talked about (and Sasuke grudgingly found amusing) insane theories about what was going to happen throughout the story, and of course at the very end. While they had waited years to find out how it was going to end, in reality, neither of them wanted the story line to stop. They wanted it to keep going on with them.

"Do you want to take a break?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke looked at him a bit apprehensively. Normally that question coming from Naruto would have astounded Sasuke; Naruto asking for a break? He was always asking for just a bit more playing time. Usually Sasuke didn't mind, but Kakashi frequently had to tell them to stop playing or else he would turn off the power, and they would lose all the game time they had since they last saved (which resulted in Naruto being a bit obsessive about saving the game, just in case). But instead of being surprised, Sasuke just nodded, feeling slightly numb.

They saved the game and got up to get a drink, used the bathroom, and did other mundane things. Still, it only took a few minutes before they were both back in the living room, watching the game's "screen saver" splash scenes of various clips of past Ninja Chronicles' games. Naruto and Sasuke stared at the video clips on the screen, reminiscing about the fights from when they had played the games over the years.

Naruto couldn't help but smile when he saw Nori's character come on the screen and do a back twisting summersault; it was a video clip from the very first Ninja Chronicles' game.

"That was the move that made me want to play the game in the first place," Naruto recalled fondly.

"I remember," Sasuke murmured.

The only sound in the room was the music for all six previous Ninja Chronicles' games playing in the background as neither eighteen-year-old felt able to speak.

"This is ridiculous," Sasuke finally grunted. Naruto turned to him, looking surprised. "Yes, I'm disappointed the games will stop and the show will end, but it's not the end of the world. There are other shows we can get into and other games for us to play. Not to mention we have the box set of all the anime seasons, except of course for the last one which will come out on DVD in a couple of months, and we can play the games over and over again. We have beaten the other games at least three times a piece, and the fourth one we must have played at least a dozen times. It's no big fucking deal."

"You're right. It's just a game. Just an anime. It's not a big deal. We've played lots of other games before too. And it HAS to end! We've been waiting for years to find out what happens with Jun being the Emperor's son, not to mention what happens with Nori and his village!"

"Exactly," Sasuke said airily.

Neither moved to pick up their controllers.

"Do you think the game ending will spoil the anime ending?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"No, the last episode was under lock and key. You know there was a serious gag rule on all the animators. They were serious about that 250 million yen fine."

"Let's do this then. We've waited years for the ending, and besides, the ending to the game won't spoil anything," Naruto reasoned, even though they knew that it was the ending to the last of the Ninja Chronicles games that they would play. They both picked up their controllers and resumed the game, meanwhile both wondering the same things:

Will the ending of the game live up to my expectations?

Will the anime wrap up all the details?

Will we have to talk about this thing between us when we finish the game?

It wasn't just the end of the videogame that the two were trying to avoid.

* * *

_ 52 hours 37 minutes game time._

** GAME COMPLETE**

Neither Sasuke nor Naruto moved from in front of the TV.

"I thought you two would be cheering or something," Kakashi said, his arms crossed as he frowned down at his two adopted sons. He'd let them play the game, yet now after everything, they seemed almost depressed.

Instead of celebrating another great victory, they both just sat and stared at the ending credits as they scrolled by on the screen.

"Do you want to shower first before bed?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm going to make ramen. You can shower first," Naruto said. They both stood up and headed to their destinations.

Kakashi looked after them, not sure how to handle their behavior. He wondered if now was a bad time to ask them to finish filling out their game analysis. A part of him wondered if they seemed so let down by the ending that he almost dreaded having to do his own computer game analysis of the sister game. It seemed like the game wouldn't be as fun as he thought. It must have been horrible for them to be so depressed.

* * *

At 1:45am, Naruto felt only slightly surprised to see that he wasn't the only one down in the kitchen unable to sleep. Sasuke sat munching on seaweed rice cakes.

Naruto pulled out some mochi from the cupboard and joined Sasuke at the table.

"What did you think of the end?" Naruto asked through a mouthful of his sticky rice. Sasuke finished chewing the crunchy rice cake before answering.

"It alluded to a lot, yet there was nothing official."

"Yeah, well, we knew we'd have to wait until tomorrow to find out the real ending for sure." There was a pause. "What did you think of that hint that the Emperor would want Jun to marry Princess Hanako?"

"Considering the fact that Jun's the Emperor's son, the rightful heir to the throne now, then it makes sense that he would be expected to marry a princess."

"But Princess Hanako's always liked Nori, even when Jun had that crush on her when they were younger. Now it's like Princess Hanako just likes Jun better because she knows he's the Emperor's son. It just...I mean...and what's Nori supposed to do now? It made it sound like he was going to return to his village and leave the Imperial Court all together! Nori can't leave Jun alone!"

"I've been thinking about it, and it seems like they had so many teasers in order to make people who finished the game before watching the end of the anime wonder about what would happen, but they wouldn't know about it for sure until the actual episode. It also makes people who just play the game want to watch the final episode. It makes sense actually. With all the possibilities there's room to question what goes on in the last episode, and it leaves room for a movie."

Naruto looked at him, surprised.

"A movie?"

"They haven't made any yet."

"Do you think they will?"

"They better. That ending was horrendous if that's how the anime really ends."

Of course, he was ignoring the fact that most animes left a lot of loopholes, not wrapping things up completely.

Sasuke threw the wrapper to his rice cake in the plastic recycling and headed off to bed. Naruto looked after him. He'd actually hoped to talk to him about something else, but he supposed it would have to wait...

* * *

After school the next day (where they'd been on their best behavior), Sasuke and Naruto returned home, both unusually high strung. Naruto showed his tension by re-organizing the various ramen flavors on the shelves he'd built in wood shop almost two years ago while Sasuke went upstairs and browsed the internet.

He'd thought about doing some basic karate moves to let his body relax but felt more inclined to put his fist through something than use it for relaxation.

The unspoken question hung heavily in both their minds. Would the show end with a Nori/Jun ending? Doubtful. It was directed at a teenage male audience – usually into girls, but sometimes too engrossed in all the other aspects of the show to really care about bothering to wrap up a tidy romance.

However, the bigger question was: what would happen if the ending really was a Nori/Jun ending?

It was stupid, really. _They_ were _not _Nori and Jun. They were Sasuke and Naruto, but they had come to see themselves as their favorite characters over time. Still, it seemed to impact them in some bizarre and inane way. How would a Nori/Jun ending reflect on Sasuke and Naruto who had thought of themselves like the characters for so long?

There were hints of strong ties between the two, not to mention that there had been a scene once where the two had been drunk which had resulted in them kissing.

Of course it was meant just for comedic effect, but to the Nori/Jun fans that was like the Holy Grail episode that "proved" they were meant to be together.

"Show starts in fifteen minutes," Naruto said, coming into Sasuke's room. Sasuke's back was turned toward the door as he sat in front of his computer. Naruto came up behind him, noting that Sasuke was once again reading a Nori/Jun story. Or Jun/Nori as Naruto noticed, having learned the difference of top and bottom by who was the first before the slash. It made his face burn as he read the erotic smut Sasuke sat reading, a fan's version of how he or she would prefer the ending to Ninja Chronicles to go.

That wasn't to say that Naruto hadn't read his fair share of those stories; it was just weird to see Sasuke doing the same thing.

Even if it was a Nori/Jun ending (or Jun/Nori ending) Naruto knew there wouldn't be any of THAT kind of stuff in the anime. Geeze, it wasn't a porno.

"Do you have any crazy last minute theories about the ending?" Sasuke asked when Naruto didn't leave.

Naruto hadn't come to talk about the anime. The main reason Naruto was there was to ask Sasuke something important, not read over his shoulder. Steeling himself, Naruto asked the question that had been on his mind for some time.

"Do you like me?" Naruto finally blurted out.

"Do you like me?" Sasuke shot back without missing a beat. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"I asked you first."

"What does it matter if I like you? What does it matter if you like me? How would that work out? Like you said, we're brothers."

"Adopted brothers."

"We're both guys," Sasuke pointed out as he turned to look at him. "It would make things difficult."

Naruto didn't say anything for a moment.

"No one would have to know."

"Kakashi?"

"What's the deal?!" Naruto snapped. "You were the one that seemed to want this, and now you don't?"

"You were the one who said there wasn't anything!"

"I changed my mind!"

"Why, because we kissed?"

"Maybe."

"It was just one kiss."

"Are you saying we try it again?" There was a slight note of breathlessness to Naruto's voice as he asked.

"Okay."

It was almost exactly the same set up as their first kiss, and neither seemed any less awkward than the first time. In fact, it seemed more awkward. The problem with talking about kissing someone or asking about it made it feel more like a chore than something enjoyable. If you had to ask, you didn't know. And if you didn't know if the other person wanted to kiss you, then you could get hurt.

They had been best friends for so long that there was an overwhelming fear to mess up the deep connection they already had. Even though they both wanted more, they didn't want something to go wrong that would cause a rift in their relationship. It would ruin them.

Sasuke stood and walked closer to Naruto as Naruto likewise moved closer to Sasuke. They leaned in close, their lips almost touching.

"Ninja Chronicles is about - "

Naruto whipped around and Sasuke moved away from Naruto.

" - to start," Kakashi finished, scratching the back of his head, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Nothing happened!" Naruto said, his face red, and Sasuke all but rolled his eyes at him. It was actually true this time, but the way he said it made it sound very guilty.

"Uh, well, I thought you might want to know the last episode is starting. I wondered what would be keeping you two from the final episode, but..." Kakashi trailed off, seemingly unsure of how to handle the situation.

"Crap! We gotta go!" Naruto said and dashed out of the room past Kakashi. Sasuke didn't meet Kakashi's gaze as he hurriedly walked away from Kakashi too.

Kakashi shook his head and walked out of the room.

* * *

The ending theme song played, and Naruto and Sasuke stared at the screen.

Ten years of watching the show. Ten years of video gaming. Three years of reading fanfiction based off the series – now at an end.

It was over.

The ending had thrown them for a loop.

Naruto turned to look at Sasuke.

"That..." Naruto began, his mouth having trouble finding the words.

"The ending..."

"That was fucking _awesome_."

It was like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. The ending – the ending was perfect. Well, perfect because the ending was really just the beginning.

_"Stay tuned for clips of the new movie coming out this July before the start of the brand new series!"_ the announcer spoke.

It was perfect, because the end of the series was the beginning of a new anime. The movie, "The Rising Sun: A New Empire," would bridge the old series into the new series about how they would now have to bring and maintain peace in the newly restored Empire called "The Empire of the Sun."

"No wonder the game left so much open! They have so much left to wrap up in the new series, 'The Risen Empire,'" Naruto said, turning to look at Sasuke. Sasuke nodded turning to look at Naruto.

Their faces were close to each other, their noses almost touching.

"Naruto," Sasuke murmured, realizing the series wasn't the only thing that needed to be wrapped up.

"Sasuke," Naruto murmured back.

It was if they were unable to find words to talk about what they needed to.

"We should, uh, go to bed," Naruto said, not moving.

"Yeah," Sasuke agreed, not moving either. They stared at each other for a few more moments, neither speaking. Finally, neither moved forward to gap the distance between them, so they turned their heads and headed upstairs.

They both lied awake that night, their minds not full of the ending of The Ninja Chronicles series and the promising start of The Risen Empire, but of the ending of their brotherly relationship, and the uncertain start of whatever this new thing between them was.

**Next Chapter: A New Beginning

* * *

**

Just fyi, there may not be a chapter next weekend. Keep your fingers crossed that that's not the case. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! ~ Jelp


	8. Chapter 8: A New Beginning

Beta'd by Master of the Rebels. And as per usual, dedicated to Fallenkarma!

**Like Ninja Fighters**

**Chapter 8: A New Beginning**

"...and as graduates, we will all find ourselves with new responsibilities and new opportunities. However, we should never forget those that helped support us through our years here..."

Naruto sat, wrapped up in the words of the class Valedictorian, watching with intensity as the head of his senior class prepped them all for what would be in store for them after graduation. He sat with the rest of his class through his graduation ceremony, almost bouncing in his seat waiting for the end of the speech when he would be able to get up and walk across the stage and finally graduate.

"...because no matter where you go, or what you do, it's your family and friends who will help and support you through everything. No matter the endeavor, just remember that you are not alone."

Loud cheers erupted from Naruto's senior class as the Valedictorian stepped down from the podium, finishing off his speech. A classmate eyed Naruto up strangely when he pumped his fist and screamed at the top of his lungs in support of the Valedictorian.

As Sasuke walked back from the podium to his alphabetically situated seat next to Naruto, he saw the confused looks people gave at Naruto's obvious enthusiasm to his speech.

People still didn't know they were best friends.

"Awesome speech," Naruto murmured, grinning as Sasuke sat down next to him. Sasuke gave an amused snort.

"You just like it because I actually listened to your suggestion and put in all that mushy crap about family and friends," Sasuke said. Naruto just grinned, knowing Sasuke really meant what he said, despite calling it mushy crap.

The people around them looked at their friendly behavior and then toward the sky waiting for Armageddon.

They listened for their names to be called up, Naruto doing a back flip after he grabbed his diploma, Sasuke merely chuckling as Naruto whooped and hollered his way back to his seat.

Together, they threw their hats in the air as they officially graduated, ending with Naruto giving Sasuke a large bear hug, and thumping him on the back.

People around them wondered what was going on. But it didn't matter. Not now anyway. They didn't have to pretend to be badass anymore, so instead, Sasuke and Naruto threw an arm around the other's shoulders, walking side by side to go find Kakashi.

Normally Sasuke would have felt a little silly, especially at the slightly affectionate display between them, but it was graduation and having Naruto by his side was one of the things that was actually keeping him stable.

He was actually missing his family terribly.

It was something that happened very rarely anymore, but at big moments like this, sometimes it overwhelmed him. Sasuke had a feeling one of the reasons Naruto was so obnoxiously showing off that they were actually close was because Naruto knew that Sasuke needed him. And Sasuke also had a feeling Naruto was missing his own parents right then, too.

"Our parents should have been here to see this…" Sasuke murmured. He was class Valedictorian, and he should have been able to show his father who had also been Valedictorian how he had followed in his footsteps.

Sasuke turned to look at Naruto, and he saw the way that tears were glistening in his eyes.

Naruto grinned at him but then turned his head to the side so that others couldn't see the broken expression on his face.

"They should have been here. I keep telling myself they're looking over me, but…" Naruto said, his voice hitching.

"I'm sure they're proud of you. Who's not proud of you?" Sasuke assured him.

Turning back to look at him, Naruto quickly wiped a few loose tears away before anyone else could see and smiled widely.

"Your family would be really proud of you, too. Mister Valedictorian!"

Even though Naruto had meant it as a compliment, the thought of how at least his brother wouldn't have been proud flitted through his mind.

Sasuke's hand kept itching to rub the back of his neck, but Naruto's vice like grip on his shoulder prevented him from reaching around to do just that. Sasuke was doing his best to ignore the urge because Naruto's body was trembling next to him. They were both pretending, and Sasuke felt guilty. It was supposed to be one of the most memorable days of their lives, and Sasuke's talk of family had set him off, setting Naruto off as well.

Thankfully, they found Kakashi at the bottom of the bleachers, waiting for them. Naruto's shoulders relaxed and his forced grin turned truly happy. Kakashi beamed back at them, pride written happily over his features.

"Yo! Nice speech," Kakashi said, grinning widely, making his eyes crinkle up.

"You read it five times to make sure it was perfect," Sasuke said, a smirk on his face as he too began to feel more light-hearted.

"And you still didn't put in that line I suggested," Kakashi said, feigning a sigh of disappointment.

"Just because you got away with that line at your graduation doesn't mean I wanted to say it," Sasuke said, though slightly amused nonetheless.

"What line?" Naruto asked, looking between the two of them.

"Remember: one night stands last till morning, but STDs last a lifetime," Kakashi quipped. "It's good advice you know."

"You really said that?" Naruto asked, looking awestruck.

"Excellent speech, Uchiha-san," a girl said, coming up to congratulate Sasuke, interrupting the little family's time together.

"Thanks," Sasuke said, nodding politely, but she didn't go away after that.

"Umm, not to be rude, but why are you celebrating with Uzumaki-san?"

Sasuke decided that it would be too hard to explain that they were brothers. It wouldn't be accurate (not to mention extremely awkward despite his new hopes for it) to call Naruto his "boyfriend" or his "lover." At least not yet.

"We're best friends," Sasuke and Naruto chimed. Sasuke looked at Naruto who grinned at him widely.

"You were taking too long to answer," Naruto said, as way of explanation. Sasuke shrugged, uncaring.

"Best friends?" she asked, as though unable to comprehend such an idea.

"Yep!" Naruto said and slung his arm over Sasuke's shoulder again. She merely blinked at them before heading away.

"Did anyone know you were friends?" Kakashi asked, rubbing his head slightly.

Sasuke uncharacteristically gave a little embarrassed cough.

"Yeah, a few people," Naruto said. "I finally had to tell the people at my lunch table because they were worried that I was getting into too many fights." Naruto rolled his eyes. "I finally had to tell them it was planned so we could play videogames. Otherwise they may have tried to stop me from fighting."

"The people at my lunch table finally figured it out too," Sasuke added. There was no way he would ever let anyone know that Neji had taken him aside at the end of last year and talked to him about Naruto. Being told by his friend that, "It's okay to be gay," was not what he had wanted to hear. Nor had, "it's obvious you fight him because you can't properly resolve your sexual tension."

"I see. So you're finally able to actually admit this to me because you've graduated?" Kakashi asked, as he folded his arms over his chest. Naruto grinned.

"I know you're proud of us," Naruto said. Kakashi sighed.

"You two are spoiled," Kakashi muttered, as he walked through the people heading back to their cars. Several stopped to congratulate Sasuke on his speech, and all of the students seemed surprised to see Naruto there with him. A few people took pictures of them together.

Naruto took a picture of Principal Sarutobi's face when he saw them together. It was a mix of shock and happiness at seeing them "getting along." Naruto bounded up to him and clapped him on the back. Kakashi put a hand over his eyes, pretending not to know him. Sasuke snorted.

"Took your advice. Sasuke and I won't get into fights, ever again. You're smart for an old man," Naruto grinned cheekily before leaving an extremely stunned principal in his wake.

"If you didn't amuse me so much, I think I'd be embarrassed," Kakashi said as Naruto and Sasuke both got into the car. "So where do you guys want to celebrate?"

Naruto took a look over at Sasuke, and eyed him up, before turning to Kakashi and grinned widely.

"Home! Lots more ramen to eat," Naruto said enthusiastically. Sasuke looked at him and let out a smirk. No one knew him like Naruto. There was no way that Sasuke wanted to be out in a crowd of people at some restaurant right now. He needed to be home and quiet. As Sasuke looked over at Naruto, the way his shoulders were tensed ever so slightly, Sasuke was sure that even Naruto needed some family time.

After celebrating by having marshmallow toothpick wars in the microwave, which consisted of putting a tooth pick on the marshmallows, and then cooking them till they puffed up and one of the toothpicks popped the other marshmallow to determine the loser, their spirits were much better.

Their spirits lifted even more after Kakashi surprised them both with an awesome graduation present.

Naruto had hoped for a new car. Sasuke had been more practical and hoped for cash.

Instead, Kakashi had gotten them both premiere tickets to see the movie "The Rising Sun: A New Empire" before it came out in theaters, along with a chance to meet the voice actors who played Nori, Jun, and several of the other main characters. He had booked them a hotel room so they could have the entire weekend to hang out.

"How'd you get these?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded. He clutched the premiere ticket as well as the reserved hotel document and the "meet the actors" as though afraid they'd disappear.

"Being high up in a computer gaming company gets you lots of perks. That's one of them," Kakashi said, as his eyes crinkled happily at their enjoyment.

* * *

Naruto couldn't sleep that night. He kept thinking of the fact that he was going to meet the voice actors who played Nori and Jun. It would be _awesome_. Not to mention he would be spending an entire weekend alone with Sasuke in a hotel room. Naruto felt his face flush.

He rolled over onto his side, thinking of Sasuke and of their one kiss and then their almost kiss.

_ Why was this so hard?_

Feel strangely hot all of a sudden, Naruto threw the covers off the side of the bed. Sighing, he rolled onto his other side toward his door and noticed a dim light coming from outside his door. Curious, Naruto got out of bed, his bare feet padding softly on the floor. He opened his door and saw light coming from underneath Sasuke's. Not bothering to knock, Naruto opened the door to find Sasuke sitting at his computer, reading.

He looked over Sasuke's shoulder, strangely disappointed to see that he wasn't reading any fanfiction. For some reason, Naruto had hoped that Sasuke would be reading a story about their favorite ninja fighters...

"Hey," Naruto said. Sasuke stiffened in clear surprise, but he didn't say anything else.

"I thought it sounded awfully quiet without your snores," Sasuke said. Naruto whacked him on the back of the head for the comment. Sasuke turned and glared.

"Jackass. What are you up to?" Naruto asked, as he yawned and stretched himself on Sasuke's bed. Sasuke watched Naruto's body stretch lazily before staring at the screen.

"Searching information about the event for the premiere of "The Rising Sun: A New Empire." It says even the author will be there, and he may be among the people we get to meet. We'll get to have good seats to watch the movie, and afterward there is a themed gala with mingling, dancing, and food for the meet and greet," Sasuke noted.

"Sweet," Naruto said, before yawning and pulling Sasuke's covers over him. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Did you break your bed? Why are you in here?" Sasuke asked, watching Naruto intently.

"I dunno. Wasn't tired. Saw your light was on. Came in. Laid down. Your bed is comfy. Now I'm tired," Naruto explained. Sasuke grunted a, "hn" before turning back to the computer. Naruto closed his eyes and sighed happily, feeling a strange sense of peace settle over him as he let the scent of Sasuke's bed wash over him.

He heard Sasuke get up and switch off the light. The weight of the bed dipped, and Naruto opened his eyes as Sasuke got on the bed – and on top of him.

Sasuke's hands were pressed on either side of Naruto's face, his legs on either side of Naruto's.

"Sasuke," Naruto murmured. His heartbeat felt like it increased tenfold as he opened his eyes, blinking as they adjusted back to the dark.

Sasuke didn't speak. He was tired of talking. He was tired of waiting for the right moment. He was tired of not having Naruto all to himself.

Moving slowly, Sasuke leaned his mouth down, pressing his lips to Naruto's. Slowly he moved his body so that almost his full weight was rested on Naruto while he continued to lightly caress Naruto's lips with his own.

Naruto felt his breath hardly coming at all as Sasuke's warm body pressed him into the bed. He slowly moved his arms up and wrapped them around Sasuke's back. He cursed himself as his hands shook while lightly trailing up and down Sasuke's back. The feeling caused Sasuke to arch his back off of Naruto slightly, a shudder running the length of his body.

After a moment Sasuke broke the kiss. His lifted himself up to look at Naruto.

"You're shaking," Sasuke said, slightly worried.

"I feel..." Naruto began, but the words got caught in his throat. He felt so very alive that his entire body was humming. He was aroused beyond belief, but mostly, he couldn't explain why his body seemed to vibrate. He laughed nervously. "I feel _awesome_."

Sasuke turned his head slightly away as he rocked his body to the side. He smirked into his shoulder before turning back to look at Naruto. Naruto grinned wolfishly back at him.

Sasuke moved his body off of Naruto's and rolled to the side. His arms didn't leave Naruto as he wrapped his arms around him. Naruto smiled as he snaked one arm around Sasuke's waist.

They shared a few more tender kisses before both just settling for warmth. Even though it was nice, it still felt a little strange. New and exciting. Something they both wanted and didn't quite want to get used to.

"Night, Naruto."

"Night, Sasuke."

"..."

"What?"

"If you snore, you're going back to your own room."

"Asshole."

"I love you, too," Sasuke murmured. Naruto stiffened for a moment before taking a deep breath.

"Love you."

"I know."

"Bastard."

* * *

**Next Chapter: Bonus Level**

Just fyi, my Valedictorian really did say what Kakashi "said" at his graduation. What did you think? Like it? ~ Jelp


	9. Chapter 9: Bonus Level

Beta'd by the lovely Master of the Rebels. Enjoy!

**Like Ninja Fighters**

**Chapter 9: Bonus Level**

_Winter break during Freshman year at University_

"We went through this, Naruto," Sasuke hissed. He had the lube in one hand, holding it away from Naruto's outstretched arm even as the blond stood on tiptoe and grabbed for it again.

"I know. But I still say my idea is better," Naruto growled, his hand reaching for the lube. Sasuke dangled it out of Naruto's grasp. "_Sasuke_," Naruto snarled out.

"No," Sasuke said firmly. Naruto glared at him.

"I've read the same stuff you have!" Naruto argued.

"Listen, just because you read all those fanfiction stories doesn't mean you have any idea what you're doing. They're written by horny girls who have never been kissed before and say 'bundle of nerves' when talking about the prostrate because they're too young to know it's a gland and not merely a bundle of nerves but rather the neurovascular _bundle that they're referring to_. No one talks about that if they're damaged then a man may be unable to get an erection. Anal sex shouldn't be taken lightly. That's not real life. Now stop trying to grab the fucking bottle," Sasuke growled out.

"Don't tell me what is and isn't real. I've done enough experimenting with my own body to know what to do."

"And I'm sure I've done even more experimenting than you ha-"

But Sasuke was cut off as Naruto's leg came up and knocked the bottle from Sasuke's grip. The bottle of lube soared through the air. Naruto caught it one-handed, a triumphant look on his face that was quickly wiped off when Sasuke dropped to the floor, his leg coming out to kick Naruto's legs from underneath him.

The lube released from Naruto's grip; he needed that hand to land without falling heavily onto his shoulder. He swore, reaching for the bottle. Sasuke kicked it away from him and then jumped over Naruto. Cursing louder, Naruto did a hand spring to get back to his feet before bending his legs and jumping hard onto Sasuke's back. He wrapped his arms around Sasuke's torso and tugged backward. Sasuke stumbled, and they both fell. Sasuke rolled his body to the side to avoid hitting the bed while managing to launch Naruto off his back. Naruto let out an "oof", the movement causing him to hit the dresser on the opposite side.

Sasuke turned to grab the lube, only to see it roll underneath the bed. The _dink, dink, dink _of its plastic container thudded across the wooden floor paneling until a softer thud came, indicating it had hit the wall.

Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other.

"Before we get the lube, let's talk about this," Sasuke hissed angrily.

"Fine."

Over the summer, Sasuke and Naruto had had fun exploring their new relationship. For the most part they had kept it on the down low because neither were sure quite how to tell Kakashi. They had a feeling he knew something was up, but thinking of how to tell him straight out still wasn't any less awkward.

They'd tried some things out on each other the weekend they had gotten to see the amazing and awesome premiere for "The Rising Sun: A New Empire." Even so, they hadn't spent much time alone. There had been too much to do and too many people to meet and bombard with questions. Or rather, Naruto had done the questioning and Sasuke had tailed behind.

For the past semester, they had gotten deeper physically into their budding relationship. They shared their own dorm suite, and they had more than enough alone time to experiment. Kisses were no longer enough to satisfy the two horny males. Jerking off with each other was fine, but they'd read the stories, and they wanted in on _everything_. They wanted the real deal.

They both wanted anal sex and both felt ready for it.

The only thing they couldn't agree on was who should top and who should bottom.

They both eyed the other up. Finally, Naruto spoke.

"My idea is better. We'll both end up switching top and bottom eventually, like we both agreed, but for now, the top-"

"No," Sasuke hissed. "We went through this. I'm going to-"

"No! I want to. It's the first time. I think I should."

"I've been waiting for this longer, so I say I should."

"All the more reason for me to do it first!" Naruto argued.

They glared at each other some more.

"I'm going to bottom. I can handle it better," Sasuke said, crossing his arms. Naruto glared at him.

"What? You think I'm some pansy who can't take it? I can take whatever you give me!"

"And I'm sure I can take everything you've got and then some," Sasuke countered.

"You selfish jerk! Don't you get it? I want to be able to feel you in me. It's..." Naruto ran his hand through his hair. He wasn't sure how to explain about how much it meant that he would be able to feel Sasuke inside of him at the base of his spine. It had only been for a several months and over twelve years had passed since it had happened, but there wasn't a day that went by that Naruto didn't remember the way he had been unable to feel his legs. The fact that he could feel his lower half meant a lot more to him than he wanted to admit. To be able to feel Sasuke in him, and to know that he would always have that memory even if he lost feeling in his legs again would be okay. The pain that would come from having sex would be welcome.

Sasuke looked at Naruto, slightly confused.

"Don't you want to be able to _use_ your legs to thrust instead of just lying there? Don't you want to be able to show off how well your body can move? To show the power you've regained?" Sasuke asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

When Sasuke put it that way...

"Gah! You manipulative genius!" Naruto yelled, pointing his finger at Sasuke.

Sasuke just grinned. He wanted Naruto to want him. To him, those on the bottom tended to be more passively involved. He wanted Naruto to be actively involved their first time as he still felt insecure about Naruto and how he felt. Sasuke had wanted Naruto for so long that he demanded Naruto's full and utter attention their first time.

That and Sasuke was afraid he would hurt Naruto by just ramming in without letting up. He was horny and wanted sex.

"Fine, your way," Naruto agreed.

They quickly stripped. Naruto looked golden and delicious, his cock bobbing as he waited for Sasuke to get on the bed. Sasuke's eyes raked over Naruto again, looking at the way his stomach came to a lovely V right by his groin.

Sasuke lay down on the bed. His body slid along the sheets, and his breath hitched at the way the touch of the silky fabric caressed his cock. His body was warm but the sheets quickly took the warmth of his body heat. He laid his face to the side of the bed. The feeling of his heart hammering in anticipation riled him up even greater. He had waited so long for this.

Naruto's hands settled on Sasuke's thighs below his butt cheeks. The firm grip on his muscles there, a place that rarely received touch, made the nerve endings in his body tingle. Naruto's thumb caressed Sasuke's muscles, and it almost tickled with the way he worked out the tension in his muscles via massage.

Slowly, Naruto coerced Sasuke's legs to open wider, and Sasuke moaned, realizing that Naruto had been opening and relaxing his body without him even noticing.

The relaxation he felt vanished when he felt something slick, wet, and very prehensile slip in between his ass cheeks.

"Is that your tongue?" Sasuke asked, shocked. For answer, Sasuke's body tightened as Naruto flattened his tongue and ran it from the base of his balls, up along his hole, dipping slightly into it, before coming out at the crevice at the top of his butt cheeks.

It felt different than Sasuke had expected. He'd fingered himself, but the way the tongue moved (soft, yet hard) was so much better. Naruto's tongue fit inside, filling him in a way his thin fingers hadn't.

Sasuke's body jerked as Naruto pressed his tongue around the edge of the hole, getting him nice and wet. He could feel the press of the tip of Naruto's tongue firm against the outside before there was a slight pressure. Naruto thrust his tongue slowly in, wiggling it around, making Sasuke groan in pleasure.

His cock throbbed with the sensation, and he rubbed himself slightly against the sheets while Naruto's tongue continued to dart in and out of him.

Sasuke gasped as Naruto's hand began to wander, kneading his back and his ass. The release of pressure from the massage made Sasuke moan in pleasure. A little shudder went through him as he heard Naruto moan appreciatively back, apparently as turned on with rimming him as Sasuke was getting rimmed.

Naruto's hands began to press harder into his body, his fingers kneading and caressing as his tongue sped up, thrusting in and out. He took short breaths, afraid to breathe too much on Sasuke, and Sasuke was grateful that he wasn't blowing air on the wet trail of saliva on his ass. Instead, Naruto's body began to rock behind his, and Sasuke felt his own cock getting harder as he realized how into rimming Naruto seemed.

Naruto gripped Sasuke's inner thighs tightly. A thrill of pleasure raced through Sasuke at the intimate touch going through him as Naruto's tongue went in deeper and stroked him, finally hitting his prostrate. It almost tickled, and Sasuke growled. His fingers could probe it, but Naruto's tongue seemed to taunt it, stroking it and kneading it, but not giving it the pressure he needed to release. It left Sasuke feeling even more wanton as he began to thrust harder against the bed as Naruto's tongue tried to drive deeper into him.

Sasuke gasped as Naruto jerked away from his body abruptly. He looked over his shoulder to see Naruto on his knees, his cock moist with precum.

"Why'd you stop?" Sasuke glared. Naruto's lips and nose were wet with his own saliva. He wiped them off on his arm and took a deep breath.

"Fuck. I was gonna cum just by having my tongue in you," Naruto said, his voice shaky. He looked around, and then he narrowed his eyes. "Shit. We never got the lube from underneath the bed."

He crawled over top of Sasuke (who enjoyed the view of Naruto's rippling muscles and nice, taut ass) and reached his hand down the side of the bed. His hand hit the wall a few times as the bed was almost flush against it. Finally his fingers curled around the lube bottle. He maneuvered his hand to be able to pull the bottle out while his hand made a fist around it.

Naruto grinned triumphantly at him, as though he had gotten his way instead of Sasuke. His grin faded when Sasuke pulled Naruto on top of him, grinding his groin into Naruto's as he kissed him. Naruto moaned as Sasuke tugged and played with his lips. Sasuke felt their cocks, both wet with precum, slide against the other's warm skin. Naruto moaned into his mouth again, grabbing Sasuke's hips and thrust upward.

When Sasuke finally let his soon to be lover back up, Naruto popped the cap lid and squirted some lube on his fingers. The squeeze made a strange, fake farting noise, and Naruto let out a nervous laugh at the unsexiness of everything. His cock deflated slightly as his nerves started acting up.

Sasuke's body began to cool as well at the lack of stimulation to his body.

They looked at each other slightly awkward. Even though they wanted this, the first time was more nerve wracking than they'd thought possible. Naruto busied himself by squirting more lube onto his fingers. Sasuke decided to move back onto his stomach and wait for Naruto.

The heat and warmth to Sasuke's groin returned full force as Naruto's finger played with his entrance. He didn't press right in and up, but instead seemed to wriggle his finger in slowly, pushing it to the side to stretch him. Naruto's finger moved in him gently and slowly. The second and third followed shortly after.

Sasuke had fingered himself and played with dildos to get prepared for this, but his heart sped up at the feeling of _Naruto's_ fingers inside him. They felt so much better than his own.

Sasuke pressed his face into the bed and moaned at the feeling of Naruto brushing his prostate as he pulled his fingers out. The press of Naruto's lubed up cock touched his entrance. Slowly, Naruto began to push in. Sasuke gritted his teeth as it felt like Naruto's cock sliding inside him was giving him internal rug burn.

Naruto's hips came up to rest against Sasuke's ass cheeks. He lowered his chest to press against Sasuke's back, the angle of his cock changing inside Sasuke. Sasuke grunted as Naruto didn't move around him. He was actually grateful for the opportunity to adjust.

Sasuke's cock hung at half mast at the uncomfortable feeling. He flexed his muscles and moved his legs around slowly, hissing as it allowed Naruto to fall deeper into him.

Naruto's mouth hovered near his neck. He gave a light kiss to the back of his neck before moving his lips to the side and bit down firmly into Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke's body pressed further into the mattress as Naruto moved his hips slowly away from Sasuke before pushing back in.

They built up a slow rhythm, both getting used to their bodies moving in such a way. Slowly, Sasuke began to get more into it and moved his hips back against Naruto.

Naruto thrust into him several times before Sasuke finally felt the burning ease as he began to slide more fluidly in and out of him. His body relaxed as his hands fisted the sheets while he began to move his body to help Naruto deepen the thrusts in and out of him.

For his part, Naruto found watching his cock sliding in and out of Sasuke more erotic than should be possible and the feeling too much for him to hold his orgasm at bay for much longer. As Sasuke began to jerk harder back against him, Naruto felt his orgasm quickly approaching. He screamed out against Sasuke's shoulder while he jerked his hips roughly forward. A whimper left him as he jerkily thrust in and out of Sasuke.

Cursing his quick orgasm, Naruto pulled out quickly and lifted Sasuke's body off from the bed. He wrapped his warm but dry fingers on Sasuke's cock, grateful that Sasuke was hard and began to pump away harshly. His wrist ached at the speed, but he wanted Sasuke to cum too.

Sasuke's mind was in a daze with Naruto jerking him off, and he came into Naruto's hand, crying out in bliss. He'd been so close just as Naruto had cum, and listening to his lover orgasm had made him almost go over the edge. Naruto's extra pumping to his cock was just the little bit he needed to find blissful release. It hadn't been from Naruto being in him, but the waves rode his body harder than any orgasm he'd had before.

They slumped down on the bed, blissfully sated.

"Tomorrow morning, I'll make sure that you have feeling in your ass. I'll make sure it lasts for a while too," Sasuke promised.

Naruto grunted at the jibe to how quick he'd cum his first time, but couldn't care for long as sleep claimed him, feeling happy and loved.

* * *

_ "'Is that your tongue?' Nori asked, shocked. For answer, Nori's body tightened as Jun flattened his tongue and ran it from the base of his balls, up along his hole, dipping slightly into it, before coming out at the crevice at the top of his butt cheeks._

_ It felt different than Nori had expected. He'd fingered himself, but the way the tongue moved (soft, yet hard) was so much better. Jun's tongue fit inside, filling him in a way his thin fingers hadn't._

_ Nori's body jerked as Jun pressed his tongue around the edge of the hole, getting him nice and wet. He could feel the press of the tip of Jun's tongue firm against the outside before there was a slight pressure. Jun thrust his tongue slowly in, wiggling it around, making Nori groan in pleasure."_

"What are you writing?" Naruto asked as he looked over Sasuke's computer screen. His eyes widened. "Are you writing this Jun/Nori fic based off of us?!" Naruto demanded.

Sasuke shrugged.

"Why not?" Sasuke asked with a shrug. Naruto's face blushed, and he turned away from the screen.

Later that night, after Sasuke posted the latest chapter to the fic loosely based off of his own sexual experience with Naruto, he read through the reviews people gave him.

One in particular caught his attention. One that made him vow never to post anything in his life EVER again as his reader requested.

_ "Dear Sasuke (because I know it's you) please don't post anything like this again. Thanks to this, I will have nightmares about you two for the rest of my life. Also, tell Naruto that he has a doctor's appointment next Monday._

_ - Kakashi"_

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about telling him," Naruto pointed out, reading the note over his shoulder.

He had a point.

"Don't worry about it. You have to get off the computer now anyway! The newest episode to _The Risen Empire_ is about to start!" Naruto pointed out.

Sasuke quickly turned off his computer and sat on the bed with Naruto in front of the TV.

They were looking forward to this episode because if they watched through it and picked up all the clues, they could call in for a chance to win a copy of the first _The Risen Empire_ videogame before it came out in stores.

Naruto and Sasuke wanted their hands on it badly, especially since the term for the upcoming semester started in a week and a half. There was no way they could skip their university classes because they needed to study hard if they wanted to become videogame designers. Getting their hands on the first videogame for _The Risen Empire_ before anyone else in their class would give them a one up with their teacher for showing how dedicated they were to gaming.

Plus, they wanted to study it extra hard. They planned to make their own version and sell it on the internet – a more adult version where the M rating wasn't just due to violence.

They decided that they weren't going to wait around and see if Nori and Jun would end up together. In the videogame they planned out, they would control how the ending should be.

After all, Sasuke and Naruto had found their happy ending together, why shouldn't Nori and Jun?

Sasuke and Naruto sat on the bed knowing that together, the next installment of their lives was going to be even more exciting than if they themselves were like ninja fighters.

**GAME OVER

* * *

**

I hope you all enjoyed this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thanks to all of you who reviewed, and again, I really hope you liked it! ~ Jelp


End file.
